PORT ELLIOT – Imagine, as a first-time mother at the age of 20, being forced to give up your daughter barely a month old.
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Sixty years ago in the UK, unmarried pregnant women were sent to hostels to have their babies adopted.
Port Elliot’s Jean Maher, who grew up in Liverpool, was one of those young women who had her baby taken away.
Jean spent years looking, writing letters and hoping to find her daughter she once lost. A decade after losing Carolynne, Jean moved to Australia with husband Tony Maher as ‘10 pound Poms’.
They later retired on the south coast and had all but given up hope.
On the other side of the world, daughter Carolynne had tried to find clues of her birth mother on several occasions.
“When I had my daughter, I thought how hard it must have been to give up your child after six weeks,” Carolynne said.
“With the internet, you’d think it would be easy (to find her), but it wasn’t.”
You'd never believe after 58 years you’d find your daughter, it was the most marvellous thing in the world.
- Jean Maher.
Husband Roger encouraged her to keep investigating. “He said I may regret it if I didn’t do it.
“All I knew was that she was from Liverpool and she was a sewing machine operator and nothing more. No photos, nothing.”
Success came through a social services worker who linked them from a number of letters Jean had written over the years, pleading desperately to find her lost daughter.
“I just sat in my car in the car park and read them and cried,” Carolynne said.
“It felt highly emotional, but not quite real.”
The last letter was written in 2010, from a Victor Harbor address, but Jean and Tony had since sold and moved to Port Elliot.
“Eventually we found a J Maher in a church newsletter, but it was under the heading ‘Healing Hands’, so we thought maybe she had passed away.”
On contacting the church Carolynne learned Jean was indeed alive, and got an email address. Just before Christmas 2016, Carolynne was able to contact Jean by email and then by phone.
Carolynne and husband Roger arrived at Port Elliot in late May for a two-week visit, which Jean said was an emotional roller-coaster.
“You'd never believe after 58 years you’d find your daughter, it was the most marvellous thing in the world,” Jean said.
Jean and Tony told their three sons about Carolynne on Christmas Day.
The mother and daughter share uncannily similar health stories. They plan to keep in touch via Skype.
“The first time we met was hard to describe in words, for two day my head just spun. But it has been fantastic,” Carolynne said.
