The Kids Are All Right: A Memoir

Perfect is boring.

Well, 1983 certainly wasn't boring for the Welch family.

Somehow, between their handsome father's mysterious death, their glamorous soap opera star mother's cancer diagnosis, and a phalanx of lawyers intent on bankruptcy proceedings, the four Welch siblings managed to handle each new heartbreaking misfortune in the same way they dealt with the unexpected arrival of the forgotten-about Chilean exchange student—together.

All that changed with the death of their mother.

While nineteen-year-old Amanda was legally on her own, the three younger siblings—Liz, 16; Dan, 14; and Diana, 8—were each dispatched to a different set of family friends.