My Mom Had a Secret Daughter. I Finally Found Her.

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My Mom Had a Secret Daughter. I Finally Found Her.

Tracy Clark-Flory, a writer, on meeting her long-lost sister and how her mother’s life was shaped by being sent away to a “home for unwed mothers” in the 1960s.

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Illustration by Brian Rea

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By

Anna Martin

April 29, 2026

Tracy Clark-Flory was 16 when she learned something that would change her world forever: She had a half sister she’d never met. Tracy's mother, Deborah, had gotten pregnant as a freshman in college. She’d given birth to a baby girl in secret and placed the baby for adoption.

Tracy could tell that talking about this baby made her mom uncomfortable, so she didn’t pry. But from that moment on, Tracy was full of questions.

Where was this sister? What was her life like? Would she want to hear from Tracy if there was a way to get in touch?

These days, Clark-Flory is a writer, and she is a mother herself. She has a new memoir coming out called “My Mother’s Daughter: Finding Myself in My Family’s Fractured Past.” In this episode of the “Modern Love” podcast, Clark-Flory tells me how she finally got answers about her sister. She also shares what she found out about her mom: Turns out, there was so much more to her story, too.

Listen to, or read, the conversation. The interview transcript below has been edited for length and clarity.

Listen to the ‘Modern Love’ Podcast: My Mother Had a Secret Daughter. I Finally Found Her.

“I remember feeling like I was hugging her for myself, and I was hugging her for our mom. It was magic.”

Anna Martin:

Tracy, in your new book, “My Mother’s Daughter,” you write that when you were 16, your mom, Deborah, decided to tell you a big secret from her past. What happened?

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