MY MOTHER'S DAUGHTER

A raw and affecting memoir about a mother and daughter who beat the odds together.

Decades before Perdita Felicien became a World Champion hurdler running the biggest race of her life at the 2004 Olympics, she carried more with her than a nation's hopes - she carried her mother Catherine's dreams.

In 1974, eighteen-year-old Catherine is determined and tenacious, but she's also pregnant with her second child and just scraping by in St. Lucia. When she meets a wealthy white Canadian family vacationing on the island, she knows it's her chance. They ask her to come to Canada to be their nanny - and she accepts.

This was the beginning of Catherine's new life. Together, in the years to come, mother and daughter would experience racism, domestic abuse, and even homelessness, but Catherine's will would always pull them through. As Perdita grew and began to discover her preternatural gifts - athleticism at what would one day prove to be an Olympic level - she was edged onward by her mother's love, grit and faith.

Perdita Felicien is an Olympian, 10-time National Champion and the first Canadian woman to win a World Championship gold medal in track and field. Perdita retired from professional sport in 2013 and is now a broadcast journalist. A long time advocate for social responsibility, she and her mother, Catherine Felicien Browne are part of a campaign that will help raise funds to build a new home for The Denise House, the women's shelter in Durham Region they credit with helping the family get on their feet in the late 1980's.