title: Chasing Ghosts: not just An Adoption Memoir
author: Kamila Zahno
description: Kamila was born under a gooseberry bush on Hampstead Heath on 1st April, 1952. What started as a journey into the unknown ended by untangling the branches of that bush and reclaiming her identity as a British/Swiss/Indian adopted lesbian. After a career as a consultant devising and evaluating socio-economic policy for local and central government, the time had come to focus on her own story. This memoir is an honest account of Kamila's quest to find her family, enabling her to find the truth behind her birth. Writing while also researching her family history and undergoing endless rounds of chemotherapy has only been possible through the support of her loyal friends and adoptive family. Chasing Ghosts is a testament to that support and is, of itself, a remarkable achievement for one who has a limited lifespan.
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  ![Cover: The Memory Thief, by Jodi Lynn Anderson](../images/9781481480239.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![The Memory Thief by Jodi Lynn Anderson, Aladdin](../images/title.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _For Harry, who has rescued me too many times to count_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # ![](../images/common01.jpg) PROLOGUE ![](../images/common02.jpg)
  
  
  In a stone courtyard at the edge of the woods, a ghost with glowing red eyes
  floats back and forth past the windows of Saint Ignatius Hospital, waiting for
  a baby to be born.
  
  
  In the decades that he’s been haunting this place, the ghost has seen it all:
  visitors and patients coming and going, the hopeless cases, the lucky people
  with small complaints. He’s kept his glowing eyes on the hospital doors in
  peacetime and during terrible stretches of war. He’s seen more babies born
  than he could ever count.
  
  
  So when cries drift out through the far west window of the maternity ward, and
  then relieved laughter, and another set of cries, the ghost knows exactly what
  it me