The ‘orphan’ of 81 who’s met her 103-year-old mum for the first time
ABANDONED to an orphanage as a baby, 81-year-old Eileen Macken had spent her life longing to trace her mother.
And yesterday the pensioner described the magical moment when she finally met her for the first time, taking the 103-year-old by the hand and telling her: ‘You know, I’m your daughter’.
Their joyful reunion marked the end of a search that Mrs Macken launched when she was just 19, in a poignant echo of the Oscar-nominated movie Philomena starring Dame Judi Dench. After throwing her arms around the centenarian for a hug, Mrs Macken said: ‘You’ve no idea what it’s done to me. I’m just so happy.’
Her mother, Elizabeth, was 22 when she gave birth to Eileen in August 1937 in a doctor’s surgery in Dublin.
In those days, babies born out of wedlock were typically adopted, and baby Eileen was handed to the Bethany Home in the Irish Republic’s capital. Aged five months, she was passed to the Church of Ireland Orphan House in the city where she lived until she was 17.
She grew up, married and had three children but her desire to find her own mother never waned. Last year she contacted Ireland’s RTE radio station to appeal for help and a genealogist found that not only was her mother still alive – and on the cusp of her 104th birthday, which is today – but told her where she lived in Glasgow.
On April 11, accompanied by her husband George, 82, and one of her daughters, Mrs Macken flew over from Ireland.
Yesterday she recalled: ‘I knocked on the door and a gentleman
‘I just wanted to get closure’
opened the door, and I told him I was from Ireland and had found out my mum was here and could we come in to see her, and he said: “Certainly”.
‘When she [her mother] saw me, I said to her: “We’re from Ireland”. And she said: “I was born in Ireland”, and she was thrilled, and she never let go of my hand. I said it to her: “You know, I’m your daughter”. And she just looked up at me. She’s the most beautiful lady...
‘ There was such a bond between the two of us, it was fantastic.’ She added: ‘She put her arms around me. I was just
so closure.’ the half-brother, happy. door The turned I just man one wanted out who of to two answered be to sons her get who Mrs live Macken, with her whose mother. own children are Hazel, 54, Graham, 48, and Olwen, 44, added: ‘I said to my children: all my life I love this lady, and I don’t know who she is. But now I am so happy.’
The heart-rending story is similar to the 2013 drama Philomena, based on a true story of a mother’s 50-year search for her forcibly adopted son.
After three days together Mrs Macken went home. She said: ‘My mother said to me, “Oh I’d love to make you some tea, but I don’t think I’ll be able to”. And I told her don’t worry at all about it. I don’t want tea I just wanted to chat to you.’