In 2019, E.A. Hanks, daughter of Tom Hanks and his former spouse Susan Dillingham, embarked on a cross-country journey to unravel mysteries surrounding her mother – a complex figure who succumbed to lung cancer in 2002 at 49, leaving numerous unresolved questions. 

The couple first connected as drama students at Sacramento State University during the 1970s, later welcoming two children: Elizabeth Anne (called E.A.) and her sibling Colin, now 47. 

Their marriage dissolved after five years in 1985. Susan (who initially used the professional name Samantha Lewes) retained primary custody, with the children spending weekends and summers with their father. This arrangement abruptly changed when Susan relocated them from Los Angeles to Sacramento without warning.

“My father arrived for school pickup only to discover we’d vanished,” E.A. recounts. “He learned we’d been gone for fourteen days and had to launch a search.” (While never clinically confirmed, E.A. suspects her mother struggled with bipolar disorder accompanied by severe paranoid delusions.) 

Now 42, E.A. chronicles her quest to understand her mother’s enigmatic life in The 10: A Memoir of Family And The Open Road. This poignant narrative details her half-year expedition along Interstate 10 from California to Florida – tracing her maternal family’s history in Palatka – to better comprehend the contradictory woman who adored literature yet battled personal demons.

In an exclusive PEOPLE excerpt below, E.A. reveals glimpses of her unstable upbringing. The 10: A Memoir of Family and the Open Road releases Tuesday, April 8, available at all major booksellers.

Over time, our backyard became impassable due to dog waste accumulation, while the house reeked of cigarette smoke. Our refrigerator alternated between emptiness and spoiled provisions, as my mother increasingly secluded herself in her canopy bed, obsessively studying scripture. When verbal aggression escalated to physical confrontation during my seventh-grade year, I permanently relocated to Los Angeles – reversing custody arrangements to spend weekends and summers in Sacramento. At fourteen, we traversed America’s I-10 corridor in a creaking Winnebago whose swaying movement mimicked ocean travel. 

During my final high school year, she phoned to deliver a terminal diagnosis.

Reprinted from The 10: A Memoir of Family and the Open Road by E.A. Hanks. Copyright 2025 © by E.A. Hanks. Published by Gallery Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, LLC