‘A thoroughly compelling story of a family ́s very personal
journey. A RED RIBBON WINNER and highly recommended.’ The Wishing Shelf Book Awards

Linda Drajem grew up in Buffalo in the 1950s, the oldest child in a Catholic working-class family. She married her high school sweetheart, became pregnant and watched from the sidelines as women burned their bras and demanded equal rights. But the role of a stay-at-home mom was not as fulfilling as she was led to believe it would be. 

Her second son, Christopher, was born in 1968, one year before the Stonewall riots kick-started the modern gay rights movement. He attended Catholic schools, served as an altar boy at mass on Sundays, and had a secret that he was sure would send him to hell for all eternity: He is gay. 

This book charts the path Christopher and Linda traveled as they realized that the life they were born into did not quite fit. It maps the tentative steps taken by both mother and son to move away from societal, religious and family expectations. Along the way there was challenge and heartache, joy and celebration, and the thrill and exhaustion of parenting. At the end of the day, they forged a path that brought personal satisfaction, a uniquely modern family and all the comfort of home.

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What readers said

★★★★★

Wandering Close to Home, a memoir of personal transformation by Linda Drajem and her gay son Christopher Drajem, reveals the universality of human longing: for connection, meaning, and above all, love. It is our hope that these touching stories will give closeted gay men everywhere the strength to come out, find happiness and, like Christopher, perhaps even start their own families. ~Brian Rosenberg and Ferd van Gameren, founders of “Gays With Kids”

★★★★★

This memoir is a love song between a mother and her son. Linda’s refrains share her longing for her son Christopher’s happiness, her own struggles to go beyond the expectations of society, church and her family of birth, and her eventual realization of what it means to be a feminist; Christopher’s lyrics are not less full of searching, and at times, agony, as he painfully hides from his mother–and everyone else– what he knows about himself. Fortunately, with searing honesty he shares his heart-rending and human becoming. When Christopher finally “comes out” as a gay man and Linda comes into her own as a confident feminist, new songs, original songs offer the reader a visceral insight of what gay people endure and celebrate and what it means to be a fierce feminist as a mother and LBTQ activist. And, especially, what family really means. This book is a story of people but also an education of the legal aspect of gay marriage and adoption. It also contains poems that pull us to deeper understanding. Like songs in your head that refuses to leave, the Drajem’s memories will stay with you. ~Evelyn Brady, author

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