Reviled for living apart from my kids

Eleven years ago, Brenda Heist's marriage fell apart. She was trying to find housing and had been refused financial aid; she was depressed, in despair, crying on a park bench. And then she vanished. What a heartbreaking, terrifying time for her family, who suspected the worst, even declared her legally dead. When she reappeared to great media fanfare last week in Florida, reaction ranged from confusion to scorn.Eleven years ago, my marriage also ended and I moved down the street, leaving the physical custody of my two sons with my husband.The public outrage directed at Heist has been eerily similar to the hostility and anger I encountered when I wrote a memoir about it.The complete post can be found here. Our sincere apologies for cross posting the full content of this piece under the mistaken impression we had permission to do so. And watch Reiko's complete interview tomorrow night! Rahna Reiko Rizzuto is the author of the memoir Hiroshima in the Morning: a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle and Asian American Literary Award, a Dayton Literary Peace Prize Nominee and the winner of the Grub Street National Book Award.  Her first novel, Why She Left Us, won an American Book Award in 2000, received a Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award Honorable Mention.  She is also a recipient of the U.S./Japan Creative Artist Fellowship, funded by the NEA.  Rizzuto has been a guest on The Today Show, The View, The Joy Behar Show, MSNBC-TV and PBS-TV, Oprah Radio, CBC Radio and NPR. She writes for Salon.com and is a featured Huffington Post blogger, and her essays and stories have appeared in the L.A. Times, the Crab Creek Review, New York Family Magazine, The Progressive, Newsday, The San Jose Mercury News, The St. Petersburg Times, The Providence Journal, as well as numerous anthologies. Reiko is half-Japanese/half-Caucasian. She grew up on the Big Island of Hawaii and lives in Brooklyn.  She is currently on the faculty of the MFA program for creative writing at Goddard College and serves on Hedgebrook’s national Alumnae Leadership Council. www.rahnareikorizzuto.com Study with Reiko at her November Master Class! Find out more here. Hedgebrook supports visionary women writers whose stories and ideas shape our culture now and for generations to come. The opinions expressed here are not necessarily representative of the opinions of Hedgebrook, its staff or board members.