Facing a shut door - symbolic of the pain, rejection, and unanswered questions - she is shut out and shut away from getting to know her biological father's identity. Like lost, mislaid, or unclaimed property, her recently discovered biological family takes no interest in her. They see her existence as a disruption to the family structure as they know it.

MeShayle Lester's debut memoir, The Shut Door, captures her personal devastation of discovering through DNA testing - and later paternity testing - that her dad of 37 years is not her biological father. MeShayle learns the meaning of a "not parent expected" (NPE) while grieving her identity and other losses following the paternity bombshell resulting from her DNA results.

The Shut Door, is a book about faith tested in loved ones, strangers, and a God who hears her prayers but has not answered them in the way she desires. In a struggle to know why an in-control God would allow her to suffer, MeShayle looks to the Christian Bible. She scratches the surface of a few biblical narratives to see how men and women in the Bible handled family secrets, trauma, and rejection.

Will shut doors ever open? Or is God even listening?