Mom’s tearful hug with child she never knew
Mother reunited with daughter she gave up at birth 47 years ago
IT was 1967. A teenage woman lay on the operating table with her face covered as doctors took her newborn baby from her.
At the time, she did not even know that her baby was a girl.
On Thursday morning, nearly half a century later, mother and daughter stared at each other when they met for the first time at Park Station in Johannesburg.
There were no words at first, just a hug.
“Oh my little girl,” Annette Welch finally said to her longlost daughter, Theresa Viljoen, who is now nearly 48.
Welch said her parents, staunch Christians, had forced her to give her child up for adoption because she was born out of wedlock.
“I prayed for years for this day to come,” said Welch, soon after stepping off the bus from East London that brought her to the reunion.
Now a pensioner, she travelled the 961km on her 67th birthday.
She said that during labour her face was covered with a cloth so that she could not see her baby.
The adoption agency threatened to put her in jail if she tried to find her daughter or make contact with her.
“I only saw on the adoption papers that I had given birth to a girl. It was tough being sep- arated from my child. I carried her for nine months and was not allowed to hold her,” she said.
Soon after giving birth, Welch was sent to Zambia to finish her schooling.
She said that over the years she wondered if her baby was in a good home and whether the adoptive parents were giving her love and care.
“My father was also abusive and had control over us. There were days when I thought I had done the right thing but other times I wished I could just see her,” said Welch.
Viljoen, a stay-at-home mother who now lives in Springs, said she started her search for her biological mother a few years ago when her adoptive parents died.
“They raised me well and I didn’t want to hurt them,” she said.
Her parents told her when she was in primary school that they had adopted her.
Through Reconnect Adoption — an organisation that helps adoptees track down their biological parents — she traced one of her half-brothers in NO WORDS: Annette Welch and Theresa Viljoen meet for the first time in almost 50 years February this year, and obtained a phone number for Welch.
“I remember our first call was weird. I didn’t know whether to call her ‘Mom’ or by her name. But now we talk for hours on the phone and chat on WhatsApp till late,” said Viljoen.
Welch, who is excited to be a grandmother to Viljoen’s two boys, said she had placed newspaper adverts looking for her daughter.
“It’s like I’m dreaming. I can’t believe I’m seeing my little girl again,” said Welch, as she hugged her daughter.
Her new family, including her son-in-law Hannes and grandson Jason, had braved the morning cold to welcome her with a bunch of hand-picked flowers.
On the eve of the reunion the family could not sleep and they drove to Park Station at 2am to wait for Welch’s bus, which arrived at 6am.
“In all my years, this is the best birthday present so far,” said Welch.
Said Viljoen: “I’m so happy, I won’t even ask for details of why she gave me away. I know she had her reasons. I know that my biological father didn’t want anything to do with me.”
The family is planning a bigger reunion later this year, at which two of Welch’s sons, Cyril and Ryan, will meet Viljoen.
Welch is planning to stay with her daughter’s family until Viljoen celebrates her 48th birthday on April 23.
“I’ve always hated April 23. It brought back bad memories of the day I was separated from my child. But this year God has answered my prayers,” said Welch.
Our first call was weird. I didn’t know whether to call her ‘Mom’ or by her name
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