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A raw and affecting memoir about a mother and daughter who beat the odds together. Perdita Felicien's story is woven into her mother's like an intricate braid. To understand Perdita's story, you must know Catherine's. Catherine is larger than life. At seventeen years old, she is determined and tenacious, and longing to experience a better life. But she is also pregnant with her second child, and just scraping by in St. Lucia by selling homemade jewellery on the beach. So when she meets a wealthy white Canadian family vacationing on the island, she knows she's found her chance. After babysitting the couple's infant son for two weeks, she asks them to bring her to Canada and employ her as a nanny. Somehow, they agree. This was the beginning of Catherine's new life: a life of great opportunity, but also profound suffering. Within a few years, she would find herself pregnant a third time--this time in a new country, Canada, with no family supporting her, and this time, with Perdita. Together, in the years to come, they would experience poverty, 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. Facing literal and figurative hurdles, she learned to leap, and pick herself back up when she stumbled. Beautifully written and deeply absorbing, Gold Mettle is a daughter's memoir--a book about the power of a parent's love to transform their child's life.