“Is that our Melissa?” Patrice Keet cries when she recognizes the woman on the speaker’s podium.

It is their Melissa—the foster child Patrice and her husband, Bob, haven’t seen since she ran away from their comfortable home at the age of eleven. Now, she’s a thirty-year-old woman at a fundraising dinner, describing her journey through foster care, teenage pregnancy, abuse, and losing her own children to foster care. In an instant, two decades of buried shame and guilt come roaring back to Patrice: If only she hadn’t failed Melissa as a foster mother.
 
Melissa Come Back is told alternately from the perspectives of Patrice and Melissa, two strong-willed women working to make peace with their pasts. When they’re finally reunited after twenty years, Melissa and her pre-teen daughters are facing eviction, presenting Patrice and Bob with the opportunity to make Melissa part of their family once again.

Melissa Come Back is a true story of resilience that sheds light on the cycles of poverty, abuse, and addiction that plague our nation.

A portion of the proceeds from the sales of Melissa Come Back will be donated to CASA of Santa Cruz County.