Anne, Adoptee:
Finding Truth at 60: A Secret Kept for Generations
When Adoption Stories Reveal Themselves decades later
Anne lived 60 years of her life with one understanding of her adoption story, only to discover it was entirely fabricated. Six hours after her birth in 1944, she was taken from her young mother’s arms and placed in an institution, while her birth mother was told the event would “never be discussed again.” Decades later, Anne not only uncovered her true origins but found the mother who had silently prayed for her well-being for over half a century.
Anne’s Story Begins with The One She Grew Up Believing
Anne has two stories about her adoption. Her parents told her she was born in St. Louis to educated parents—her birth father supposedly a law student drafted during the war, her birth mother a musician from a family where her grandfather was a veterinarian. This carefully crafted narrative suggested a thoughtful decision made by capable people unable to raise a child during wartime. St. Louis was about 70 miles from the small town where she was raised, so it made sense to her being sent to a family in a small-town community and they would go back to their life in Saint Louis after placing her for adoption.
“I don’t know when I was told I was adopted. I think it was whispered in my ear in the crib. I just always knew.”
The First Glimpse of Uncertainty
The truth began to emerge when Anne was a senior in college and she needed her birth certificate to get her passport for a trip she was going to be taking to Europe. She discovered her birth certificate listed DeSoto, Missouri, as her birthplace, not St. Louis. Anne’s mother quickly arranged a meeting with the social worker who had handled the adoption, who repeated the same elevated story of Anne’s origins. Anne accepted this narrative for decades, feeling no need to search further while her adoptive parents were alive.
Unveiling the Hidden Truth
Only after both adoptive parents passed away did Anne finally pursue her origins, working with lawyers who uncovered her actual adoption papers. When a private investigator located her birth mother in just a couple of hours, Anne was stunned to learn she was still alive at 85. With her best friend’s help, Anne carefully approached her birth mother, discovering that none of the original story was true. Anne wasn’t born in a St. Louis hospital to educated parents, but in the front bedroom of her grandmother’s house, just hours after her young mother—who worked at a local bank—had returned home with what she thought were bad cramps.
Decades in the Making
What followed was a remarkable reconciliation. Anne’s birth mother had carried the secret for over 60 years, even as she prayed regularly for the well-being of the baby taken from her. Despite initial fears about revealing the truth, she eventually shared Anne’s existence with her son (Anne’s full brother) and other family members. Anne developed meaningful relationships with her birth family, spending holidays together until her birth mother passed away at nearly 99 years old.
“I came to understand the circumstances…and I felt pain for her having to carry a secret all those years.”
Two Chapters, One Remarkable Life
Anne’s story spans two chapters—the first 60 years with loving adoptive parents who provided everything she needed, and the last chapter where she gained understanding of the difficult circumstances that left her young birth mother with no options in 1944 small-town America. Anne feels fortunate to have experienced both parts of her story, each with “such wonderful heart to them.”