Finding Mac – a journey of adoption, love and loss

Modern families come together in all sorts of ways – one parent, two parents; same sex, opposite sex; planned, unplanned; biological, adopted. There are examples of different sorts of families all around us.

Finding Mac tells the story of how one family came together, as Richard and his wife Swee welcome eight-year-old Mac into their lives. It recounts the highs and lows as they get to know and love each other and become a successful family unit. Along the way it shares their experience of adoption, and particularly the experience of adopting an older child. From joining a local school, figuring out your family’s new traditions, going on holiday for the first time, and navigating the bureaucracy of the social care system.

But all that changed when Mac was killed on his motorbike, just a few months after his sixteenth birthday. Finding Mac deals honestly with the feelings of a parent who faces the death of his child, and coping with the aftermath.

This is a warm and life-affirming account, honest but never whimsical. Despite some of the difficult subjects, this memoir is overwhelmingly positive and a tribute to love.

The Revd Richard Sutcliffe is a part-time priest in the Church of England, living in a small village in Hampshire. After leaving university and qualifying as an accountant, he worked for most of his career in London as a policy maker in Financial Regulation. After the pandemic, he decided to take early retirement from his life in London and to enjoy a quieter life in the countryside, with his family and his dogs.

Richard wrote Finding Mac as a way to record and share stories with his family and friends, and to help the memories of Mac to live on. He has published an article in the Church Times about being a bereaved father and also took part in a conversation for the Radio 4 programme The Listening Project.

He now works part-time in his local churches as part of a wider ministry team. This gives him plenty of time to spend with his sister, his nephews and their growing families, and to indulge in his interest in collecting art.