General Chat

As the child of a mother who was widowed in the early 1950's and left with four children I agree there WAS National Assistance but it came nowhere near providing what benefits do these days.
There was a day when my desperate mother took my two younger sisters (my older brother and I were at school) to the NA office, was refused help, so she went to walk away and leave my sisters in the office saying she couldn't feed them. In the end they gave her a shilling!!
I think also people were not so aware of benefits then, and they also still made people think charity/workhouse.

Having worked with women who had abusive husband/partners, I don't it's something you can comprehend, unless you have been in the situation, or witnesses it first hand, it is too complex, often the abuser starts off by being the perfect gentleman, and when the abuse starts, the woman is made to believe it is her fault, there is of course the absolute fear. Having seen the effect of this I now couldn't judge how it affects a persons ability to get out of the situation, only to say that the women I worked with, I believe loved there children.

As for a woman bringing up children, having left her husband in the 60's there wasn't much help at all.

I agree with John's comments.

I am surprised about comments ref National Assistance. I am not saying you are wrong, just that I do not remember mothers coping with babies on their own in those days without family support or a very good job. It seems a recent phenomenon that mothers with no obvious means of support can have several children and a house and no job without a partner's involvement.

I just accepted the tears as genuine on all sides last night and thought their new relationship was moving. They seem to have all gained from meeting up and am sure we all wish them the best for the future. Lots of questions I agree - but private ones.

It 'may' have been best to have the children fostered/adopted if she genuinely felt she couldn't look after them by herself if she divorced....but to then go with the man who had effectively lost you your children to Aus and stay with him regardless? I don't understand that...but then I never understand why women stay with violent men.

yes sorry,they were given away and she didnt sigh the adoption papers.

i didnt know that woman got assistance ,i was only young in the 60s

thought they said Adrian was 6 not 16.my hearing must be worse than i thought.

anyway a strange story.

But she didn't get both children away from the bloke she was living with at the time.

Adrian was put in hospital by the bloke she was living with and was taken into care.

Edit. but there was National Assistance for women on there own with children.

And they weren't adopted.

Only Adrian when he was 16 yrs old.

Just watched the story and wondered why the second son was not mentioned,
Adrian must have known he had a brother being 6 when adopted.

to be fair,it was not easy for a woman with children to leave an abusive husband/partner in the 60s,no benefits then.how would they live?i think she did the right thing by getting them adopted.

they didnt mention the other brother

wonder if they found him and he didnt want anything to do with them

When they met Ann told her children that she loved her husband too.
It seems then that she made sure that they were safe by getting them away from him. She could however have left him instead and stayed with her children. I think that is why she was so ashamed.


No fathers name on his birth cert. so seems that Ann was not married at the time. Could therefore only have fathers name on cert. if he was with her to reg. birth (or did it himself).

Adrian and Sharron were so alike that I think that they looked like full sibs.
I reckon that the husband was PROBABLY the father to both of them.


Missed the beginning, but hope that I have managed to record the complete prog. If so, will listen out for mention of other brother.

At the end of the day it is a television show that is put together to get as many viewing figures as possible.

No different than a newspaper trying to sell more copies over a certain story.

RR Hayley..

Yes a very strange tale in this one.

Something didn't sit right with me either call it intuition but I don't think the so called mother wanted to meet them even though she was trying to show that she did.
I noticed that she couldn't look them in the eyes.
Sorry but something very strange about this one.

Know what you mean about it seeming a long story CupCakes - think it was because it was all about one family - usually it is two completely different family stories :-D ;-)

I thought they said the mother didn't want to tell her side of the story on camera Jude - what hold her husband must have had on her!!

Sad that Adrian received his boomerang, but no birthday card or letters! and I wondered about the other brother too, was he fostered to another family?

Ann was probably a little ashamed Hayley, although if she was in an unsuitable relationship life must have been difficult for her then.

I felt a bit weepy cos I hate seeing folk cry and also because I imagine my Dad and his long-lost sister meeting...if only we'd found them in time. :-(

Mau

I did weep a lot as its always emotional when you see families reunite after a long time. Its because we are human. If we didnt cry tears of joy or sadness then there would be something not right with us.
However what i didnt understand was, was the husband Adrian's stepfather , but sharon's dad or not, all a bit confusing? i didnt hear about another brother must have missed that.

Amazing though how people can be found even after many years.

Florence
In the hebrides.

wonder why some of you did'nt cry....:(...
Hayley .... what was strange about the reuinion?? l thought they said we would'nt see it though..

jude

I don't know, maybe it's just me, but ..this episode just didn't sit well with me.

I must be hard as nails because I didnt cry :-(


Edit:

Did anyone else notice that Ann couldnt look Adrian and Sharon in the eye she had her head down most of the time?

I'm a blabbering wreck over here!

I deffo heard 2 sons mentioned and I have just watched the begining again .....so what happened to the second one?

At last a one with a twist ......1 missing son and a story that gets refused to be told to camera but the reunion was .verrrrrrrry strange :-(

CupCakes/NS - it wasn't that long - it was the usual hour