The Housekeeper's Secret: A Memoir

IBPA Book Award — Gold, Best Memoir 2025 (formerly the Benjamin Franklin Award) Eric Hoffer Award — First Horizon Finalist & Grand Prize Honourable Mention IPPY Silver — Best Memoir 2025 12 National Honours

Now in a fully expanded Second Edition — with an all-new epilogue revealing the fulfilment of a secret, lifelong promise.

Sandra Schnakenburg was three years old when Lee arrived — a quiet housekeeper with guarded eyes and a past no one was allowed to discuss. In a home ruled by fear, silence, and a controlling patriarch, Lee became the only source of warmth Sandy could trust. She was family. She was everything.

But decades later, a deathbed promise would unravel everything she once knew to be true.

What begins as a memoir about secrets in family becomes a devastating investigation into hidden identities, stolen years, and the brutal realities buried beneath a carefully constructed life. As Sandy uncovers the truth about Lee’s hidden past, she is forced to confront the scars of emotional abuse, the long shadow of dysfunctional families, and the damage done by a system designed to erase vulnerable women.

But this is not simply a story about suffering. It is a women’s survival memoir — a portrait of extraordinary resilience — revealing the quiet courage required to endure both a family and an institution that demanded silence. Lee’s story is one of the most remarkable true stories of women’s strength you will ever read. It is also a testament to what women supporting women can look like across every boundary society places between them.

This is the true story that The Help never told.

NEW IN THIS SECOND EDITION — The Final Promise

Every reader, every book club, every festival audience asked the same question after the first Did you do it? Did you scatter Lee’s ashes at Wrigley Field — home of her beloved Chicago Cubs?

The answer is in this edition. And it is everything.

“Schnakenburg delivers a frequently engrossing and often surprising glimpse into a troubled life.” — Kirkus Reviews
“As much a page-turner as a deep dive into relationships, loyalty, and the secrets we keep from those we love most.” — Cameron Dezen Hammon

“A tale of women surviving and supporting each other that will amaze and inspire you.” — Catherine Vance, author
For readers Educated · The Glass Castle · What My Bones Know · The Help (true story)