We Became Like a Hand: A Story of Five Sisters

by Carol A. Ortlip

As the oldest of five sisters, Carol Ortlip identified herself as the "translator, " the one responsible for making sense of the outside world for her four younger sisters. In this moving, beautifully... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 034544342X
• ISBN13: 9780345443427
• Release Date: March 2002
• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Length: 289 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.7" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

a book which makes you cry

We Became A Hand is a book about Carol Ortlip life story. Carol was grown up in New Jersey and has been traveled and worked all over the country and Europe. The book begins when she was a nine-year old girl in her hometown and ended when she settled in Vermont as an elementary teacher. Being the eldest child of her family and have a mental problem MOM, Carol bears a lot of responsibility of her four younger sisters. Her father is an artist and was frequently not at home. Carol became the "head" of the five girls in Ortlip family. She was the decision-maker; also she was the protector of her sisters. She cares a lot about her sisters. Therefore, Carol was broken down for years when one of her sister, Shari died in a car accident in 1976. It took her years to "back on track" her own life, and then another sister Danielle died of cancer in 1993. In this book, Carol honestly depicted her relationships with family and her life. I like this book because it somewhat relates to my own life--I also have brothers and sisters died young too. I can understand how much pain she bore when her siblings died so young. It is a book that leaves the readers a heavy heart.

Breaks the heart wide open

We Became Like A Hand is a courageously written, elegantly crafted offering to the world. There is a magic to the book as one lucid insight unfolds to the next. Ortlip has arms that stretch wide enough to bring the reader along with her on both her outer and inward life journey and she tells her story with a depth of honesty that breaks this reader?s heart wide open. At times I found myself wanting to look away, as if witnessing another?s life so nakedly exposed would be intrusive. Such a rare peak into the life of a powerful, raw, exposed while exquisitely tender and vulnerable woman felt like a personal gift. This is a wonderful book for anyone willing to be touched and moved deeply by another?s life story.