by Andi Mandel (Author)

Andi Mandel drove to California on Route 66 in a Buick, with a dream and a plan. Teach art. Marry Mr. Perfect. Raise the perfect family. What she got instead was better.

Three kids who taught her that detours aren't mistakes, they're the actual road. Jeremy, whose first word was "car" and who asked every stranger the same question: "What kind of car do you drive?" It wasn't small talk. It was Jeremy's way of asking who you are, how you move through the world, what matters to you. From the Toyota dealer who called the cops thinking he was casing the lot, to the Maserati salesman who took him for a test drive just to see him laugh, to the bright blue Hyundai he got for his fortieth birthday ("Mom, this isn't the color interior I wanted"). Jeremy's gone now, but his question sticks.

Missy, the four-pound twin who fought her way back from the edge more than once. Danny, who learned to be quiet in a loud house and somehow became the steady one. Richard, her "Mr. Perfect," who held her hand through hospital vigils and birthday celebrations and everything in between.

This is the story of a family that kept moving when the map disappeared. Of faith that held when diagnoses didn't. Of a mother who learned that the scenery on a detour is where life actually happens. Of art teachers and doctors and strangers who became lifelines. Of a California dream that shattered and reformed into something real.

What kind of car do you drive? In other words: how did you get here? And more importantly, who showed up along the way?