Reunited with the daughter taken
from me

Newcastle Evening Chronicle, 24th December 2001

Chief Features Writer EMMA ANDREWS reports

They may look like any normal family enjoying a last-minute Christmas shopping spree but this family is extra special. Just a few weeks ago May Burge was not even sure her daughter was alive, let alone that she had a new grandaughter too.

MAY Burge was not even allowed to catch a last glimpse of her baby girl through the window of the unmarried mothers' home the day they came to take her baby away.
May was ordered to sit still and look away as social workers carried her baby away to a new life with a new family.
That was 36 years ago, but the memories are still painfully vivid for the 74-year-old who feared she would never see her daughter again. Now May and her daughter Elisha are together again and looking forward to the best Christmas of their lives.
May has not only found her daughter; she has also discovered a new grandchild, Chloe, four. And Elisha has not only found the mother she has been searching for all her life, she has discovered a new sister, Alison, and niece, Brooke, five months.
We caught up with them all on an exciting Christmas shopping trip to Fenwick's toy department in Newcastle's Northumberland Street.
It is just four weeks since May and Elisha met for the first time in 36 years in a private room at the Chronicle offices.

Reunited

They had asked for somewhere neutral for the all-important meeting and we were happy to oblige. And there were tears all round as the mother and daughter enveloped each other in a hug that seemed to last for hours.
Pat Basquill, who runs the search agency Trackers, brought the two together after months of careful research and determined hard work.
"I still can't believe it's true," said Elisha, "We've so much to catch up, so much to say to each other, but we're trying to take each day as it comes and not rush things.
"It's not only wonderful finding May, but getting to know my new sister and niece, and Alison and I have really hit it off. We're so much alike it's uncanny; we both like the same food - roast dinners are our favourites - and we both like snacking in front of the TV. We even like the same music."
Elisha's daughter Chloe is revelling in all the attention from her newfound family, especially her doting grandma. And the presentation of two free Fenwick's Christmas teddy bears from the store in honour of the occasion was the icing on the cake.
"Chloe is just gorgeous," said May. "Finding her, and Elisha, has made this the best Christmas of my life. It's all like a dream." Ashington nurse May was 37 and seven months' pregnant to boyfriend Bill when her parents, John and Chrissie, threw her out.
"I'm afraid passion got the better of us, but as soon as Bill found out I was pregnant he didn't want to know."
May heard about the Hopedene unmarried mothers' home in Newcastle from a friend. "It was my last hope," she said. "I'd nowhere else to go."
May's first impressions of the hostel run by the Salvation Army were gleaming wooden floors and polished banisters: "It was beautiful, but I didn't know I'd be polishing those floors, on my hands and knees, just days before I gave birth.
"They worked you hard and we all slept in the freezing attics where there was no heating. It was mid winter and I still remember the cold."
May, along with the other girls, was marched to the Salvation Army Citadel every Sunday where she was urged to repent her sins. "Everyone knew who we were, and if we refused to get up to repent we were prodded in the back until we did. It was a harsh, unforgiving place. But the thing I'm most angry about is that they never told me there were options, that I could have kept my daughter if I wanted to.
"I only found out later that I could have got a flat, some money, and had a chance to raise my daughter myself. But I was made to feel that I'd be kicked out on the streets with my baby if I insisted on keeping her."
Now recovering from a mastectomy after breast cancer was diagnosed a few weeks ago, May had given up all hope of ever seeing her beautiful daughter again.
But then, a few weeks ago, a local newspaper advert would give her hope for the first time in the 36 years since her daughter was taken from her.
Elisha was trying desperately to find her mother and had sought help from Trackers. The ad simply mentioned a reunion: "I called Pat and she told me my daughter wanted to see me. It was the most wonderful moment of my life. I still can't believe it's true - and seeing Elisha again is the answer to all my prayers. She still has that beautiful smile."

Adoption

Elisha was told she was adopted at nine, and it shattered her world.
"I just didn't know who I was anymore," said the 36-year-old from Newcastle.
"I remember crying out for my real mother, wondering why she wasn't with me, why she'd left.
"I'd always felt I was different, that I didn't belong, but I felt like a rug had been pulled out from under my feet. Everything was so uncertain."
Elisha vowed then that one day she would find her mother.
"I've been told so many things in my life about my mother and for a while I didn't know what to believe," said Elisha. "I was told my parents had died in a car crash, then I was told my mother was married and had an affair. I didn't find out the truth until I spoke to Pat at Trackers and she told me about Hopedene. Now I feel so sad for my mum.
Elisha does not blame her mother for giving her up: "Now I know the truth I don't feel angry or rejected. I don't believe in judging people until you've heard their side of the story.
"I just want my mum to be a part of my life."

ALL TOGETHER - May Burge, her grandaughter Brooke, daughters Alison and Elisha, and grandaughter Chloe celebrate their reunion

WHAT A BONNY LASS! - May Burge with grandaughter Brooke, five months

HAVING FUN - May Burge in playful mood with her new-found grandaughter, Chloe

Copyright © Patricia Basquill, 2002 - 2008