Take the Gravel Road Home

Some roads take us away from home. Others spend a lifetime leading us back.

In Take the Gravel Road Home, H.A. DeGraffenreid shares a deeply personal story of childhood instability, painful experiences, complicated family relationships, and an enduring search for the place where she could finally feel safe.

At the center of her memories is a white farmhouse at the end of a gravel road in rural Missouri and two people, Helen and Reese, whose quiet, unconditional love showed a young girl what home could truly mean. Their kindness became a touchstone she would carry through the upheavals of childhood and into adulthood.

As Heather grows from a watchful child into a mother, wife, caregiver, physical therapist assistant, and nursing home administrator, she begins to understand how the lessons of her past shaped her relationships, her work, and the way she cared for others.

More than a story of surviving abuse, Take the Gravel Road Home is a memoir about healing, breaking generational cycles, rediscovering your own voice, and realizing that home is not simply a place you find. Sometimes, it is something you build.

The manuscript itself frames the story as more than survival, emphasizing the contrast between those who caused pain and Helen and Reese, who demonstrated tenderness, safety, and unconditional love.