SOFT NEWS 82-year-old woman meets 103-year-old mother after 60-year search

[Melodi]

[BAnother feel-good story of the day to help offset all the bad news - I am so happy for both of them!][/B]

82-year-old woman meets 103-year-old mother after 60-year search
Updated / Thursday, 9 May 2019 16:20

Elizabeth and Eileen were reunited in Scotland last week
An 82-year-old Irish woman has said she still has not come out of the clouds after meeting her estranged mother for the first time after 60 years of searching.

Eileen Macken grew up in a Bethany Home orphanage and had never met her birth mother.

Last year, having started searching when she was 19, Ms Macken contacted RTÉ's Liveline and made an appeal to track her mother down.

Earlier this year Ms Macken said that with the help of a genealogist she had managed to find her mother who was 103 years old and was living in Scotland.

When she found out that her mother was still alive, Ms Macken told RTÉ News that "just to touch her, it would mean so much".

Last month Ms Macken's wish came true as she travelled to Scotland with her husband George, along with her daughter and son-in-law, to meet her mother, Elizabeth.

"I went over to see her and she is the most beautiful lady," Ms Macken said.

She said that her own family were worried about her travelling over but she decided to "take the bull by the horns" and make the journey.

Ms Macken said she travelled to her mother's home and knocked on the door, to meet a man who turned out to be her half-brother.

"I told him I was from Ireland and that I had found my mum here and could we come in to see her, and he said 'certainly'," she said.

She said that she had a "great chat" with her mother during her three-day trip to Scotland.

"She was reading the newspaper and when she saw me, I said we were from Ireland and she said 'I was born in Ireland'," Ms Macken said.

"She was thrilled and she never let go of my hand."

Ms Macken's mother will celebrate her 104th birthday this weekend.

Ms Macken said she has been so happy since coming home from the trip to Scotland that she has not done any work in the house since.

"I don't think I'll ever come down out of the cloud."
https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2019/0509/1048468-eileen-macken/

 

[summerthyme]

Wow! I never really had any interest in looking for my birth parents; my adoptive mother did her best to make them sound evil and nasty (she meant well, but was quite insecure), and while I realized very young that there were likely two sides to the story, I never wanted to hurt Mom by looking.

The adopted "brother", OTOH, did find his birth family, and it answered a LOT of questions. They're all nuts... alcoholism is rampant, and they're the worst kind of "gun nut"... fascinating how he inherited both traits strongly!

My own birth mother would be in her early 80's now, if she's still alive, and I honestly don't care enough to spend the effort to try to find her. I've prayed for her frequently, and hope she hasn't tried to find me, but I've got a lot more going on in my life and have built my own beloved family.

I'm happy for Ms Macken... I can't imagine how shocking it must have been to find a still-living parent over 100 years old!

Summerthyme

 

[Melodi]

My sister was told who her biological grandmother was when she was 18, this was partly because I told my parents that if they didn't tell her I would.

It was awkward because we had all been in a very small town when my sister was adopted and it didn't take long for my Mom to realize that one of her best friends had left open a diary saying "this day is born the granddaughter I shall never know" open where my Mom would see if - it was my sister's birthday."

Thankfully her Grandmother was a wonderful person and took on that role since there were no living grandmothers in our family to do it - finding out she really was her grandmother was just icing on the cake - later she lived with her birth mother (as an adult) for a time and was her caretaker during much of her bio-mom's final illness.

Sometimes finding things out is wonderful and sometimes it isn't, but I thought this was a lovely story because it was so unlikely that her bio-mom would still be alive at nearly 104!

 

[Dozdoats]

I hope it brings them both much happiness. People can be SO shortsighted sometimes.