Amou

Up until I was nearly seventeen, when she finally left us to return to her family in Brazil, Isabella, whom I fondly called Amou, had more to do with my upbringing than my own mother, who had leaped upon the opportunity to let me know I was adopted as soon as I could understand what the word meant.

Willow V.C. Andrews 2002

Up until I was nearly seventeen, when she finally left us to return to her family in Brazil, Isabella, whom I fondly called Amou, had more to do with my upbringing than my own mother, who had leaped upon the opportunity to let me know I was adopted as soon as I could understand what the word meant.

Willow V.C. Andrews 2002

Up until I was nearly seventeen, when she finally left us to return to her family in Brazil, Isabella, whom I fondly called Amou, had more to do with my upbringing than my own mother, who had leaped upon the opportunity to let me know I was adopted as soon as I could understand what the word meant.

Willow V.C. Andrews 2002

I insisted on calling her Amou despite my adoptive mother’s always correcting me and lecturing me, sometimes quite emphatically, to call her Isabella and not Amou, especially if I did it in front of my adoptive mother’s friends, who would grimace and ask, “What did she say?”

Willow V.C. Andrews 2002

I insisted on calling her Amou despite my adoptive mother’s always correcting me and lecturing me, sometimes quite emphatically, to call her Isabella and not Amou, especially if I did it in front of my adoptive mother’s friends, who would grimace and ask, “What did she say?”

Willow V.C. Andrews 2002

I insisted on calling her Amou despite my adoptive mother’s always correcting me and lecturing me, sometimes quite emphatically, to call her Isabella and not Amou, especially if I did it in front of my adoptive mother’s friends, who would grimace and ask, “What did she say?”

Willow V.C. Andrews 2002

I described what my early life had been like, told him about Amou in more detail and especially about my adoptive mother and how severe she could be.

Willow V.C. Andrews 2002

It was why he was so instrumental in acquiring Amou.

Willow V.C. Andrews 2002

“Amou, Amou,” she would cry, and began to refer to herself the same way.

Willow V.C. Andrews 2002

Amou used to refer to her as Senhora do Passaro, “Bird Lady,” because of her fragile bone structure and the way her nose had turned downward with age and become beaklike.

Willow V.C. Andrews 2002