Behind Whispering Pines is the prelude to Finding Gloria, a 250 page inspirational memoir by Marianne Curtis. In Behind Whispering Pines, the author discovers her adoptive mother is in the local hospital without her knowledge. Estranged from her once physically abusive mother, Curtis pays her a visit for the first time in over two years. The woman who once beat and starved her; said she was ugly and useless, was now suffering from dementia and waiting for placement in a nursing home. What started out as an English class assignment when the author returned to school (and graduated) in 2005 at the age of 38 has turned into an inspirational memoir of survival called "Finding Gloria." In Finding Gloria Marianne tears apart her life chapter by chapter to the point that she realizes that in order to be happy, she had to close the door on her past forever. ***could be considered a spoiler to Finding Gloria as this piece was the jumping off point for the heartbreaking, yet inspirational memoir.