?

BONUS READ

Lost and given up for adoption

Joel de Carteret returned to the place
of his birth to do the impossible

Finding
My
Mother BY RO BE RT K IENE R

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“I
DON’T BELIEVE IT! IT CAN’T BE!” Joel de Carteret says to alive? How will you ever find
himself when a market seller in metro Manila’s bustling her?”
Julie blinked back a tear and
Munoz Market brings him the incredible news. felt her heart break when Joel
Joel feels his heart pounding like a snare drum and beads of told her, “I know, mum. But I
perspiration run down his forehead as the 35-year-old listens to the have to try.”
stallholder give him the information he has been searching for so Julie persisted, hoping to save
Joel from a broken heart. She
long: “I think I know who your mother is. And where she is.” leaned across the table and
From that moment on, Joel realizes, his life will never be the same. asked, “How will you feel if you
don’t find her? Will you be able
THIRTY YEARS AFTER being adopted Many, especially his Australian adop- to move on if you don’t find any-
by an Australian family and raised in tive mother Julie de Carteret, worried thing?”
Melbourne, Joel de Carteret has come about him, explaining, “You’ll just get Joel paused, took a bite of his
back to the country where he was your heart broken.” salad and looked Julie in the
born. He is on a seemingly impossible However, the idea of reuniting with eyes, explaining, “I know what
quest—to find his birth mother. his Filipino mother has gnawed at Joel you’re saying, Mum, and I un-
Although he doesn’t know his for decades. “I have to do this,” he has derstand. But I have to do this. A photo of Joel, age 5, taken upon his arrival at the
mother’s name, or even remember often said. “I owe it to myself and to I have to find out who I am and orphanage. He was adopted 18 months later.
my biological mother. I must have where I came from.”
broken her heart by getting lost.” Pri- A few weeks later Joel called Julie as looked in on her five-year-old son and
vately, he has also felt that he needed he was waiting for his flight to Manila watched as he slept soundly in their
“BUT JOEL,YOU DON’T to find his birth mother to discover to begin his search. “I’m off, Mum,” modest home in Quezon City on the
KNOW YOUR MOTHER’S that part of him “that has been miss- he told her. “Wish me luck.” Julie held outskirts of metro Manila. “I’ll let him
NAME,” JULIE SAID. ing for all these years.” But Julie tried back her tears and said, “I love you, sleep,” she thought as she watched
“YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW to dissuade him. Joel. Good luck.” But she had little his tiny chest rise and fall. The single
YOUR BIRTH DATE.” Recently in a Sydney restaurant, hope he would find his birth mother. mother gathered her purse and set
when Joel told her he planned to Now, after years of wondering about— out to her job as a dressmaker at a
visit the Philippines to find his birth and weeks of desperate searching for— nearby clothing factory, leaving her
mother, she told him, “But, Joel, you a woman he could barely remember, son in the company of a flat mate.
what she looks like, he is determined don’t know your mother’s name, your in a country where he couldn’t speak An hour or so later, he awoke,
to find her. He has spent much of the birth date, or where you lived. You PHOTO/ILLUSTRATI ON CREDIT the language, he is sure he has some- jumped out of bed and began look-
last month in the Philippines tire- didn’t even know your name when how found that needle in the haystack. ing for “Ma.” He searched through
lessly—and unsuccessfully—search- you arrived at the orphanage.” Joel Thanks to a well-meaning stranger, he the house and when he couldn’t find
ing for clues about his mother’s iden- understood from documents that the is about to be reunited with his long- her, began panicking. This was unlike
tity. And now this. orphanage gave him his name. As lost birth mother. her; they traveled together daily to her
Friends and family in Australia had a waiter refilled their water glasses, workplace, taking the colorful public
told him there was little chance of lo- she continued: “You also don’t know THREE DECADES EARLIER, on the transport vehicles known as jeepneys.
cating his mother after all these years. where your mother may be. Is she morning of July 25, 1985, Linda Rio When he realized she was gone,

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he darted out into the street to find him to his home and then to the po- him, had originally been declared a him listening to a popular nightly quiz
her. Dodging strangers, stray dogs, lice station. But the most the terrified “foundling”—an “unknown child”— show, repeating many of the random
jeepneys and delivery trucks that five year-old could tell the police was and was severely malnourished. words he heard the TV host say.
filled the busy street, he looked every- “Ma” was a dressmaker and “Papa” Then, after social workers exhausted In his first year of school he would
where for her. But she was nowhere to was a jeepney driver. every method they knew of to find his stubbornly stumble through his “show
be found. His eyes filled with tears as Meanwhile, Linda had returned parents, he was eventually declared and tell” talks, bravely searching his
he wandered the busy back streets of home for lunch and was shocked to “abandoned.” He was now eligible for memory for just the right word as his
Quezon City. “Ma!,” he said to himself. find that her son was missing. She adoption. classmates looked on. His teacher
“Where are you?” looked around the neighborhood At first he cowered behind the or- once told Julie, “Joel is one very, very
Eventually, he arrived at the and even rushed back to the clothing determined little boy!”
sprawling, jam-packed Munoz Mar- factory, thinking he might have gone Julie and George were thrilled
ket, where he walked along aisles there to find her. But no one had seen with the way Joel adapted to his new
crowded with hundreds of vendors him. She and several friends searched IN HIS FIRST YEAR home and the Australian way of life,
hawking everything from just-slaugh- everywhere for him and she eventu- OF SCHOOL, HIS which was so very different from his
tered chickens to freshly caught fish, ally took off from work to look for her TEACHER ONCE TOLD hardscrabble existence in the Philip-
to trussed-up, squealing piglets. The son full time. She even went on local JULIE, “JOEL IS ONE pines. Nevertheless, there were hints
chaotic sights and sounds—the huge, radio stations, pleading with listeners VERY, VERY DETERMINED that something was brewing beneath
flashing knives chopping up food and to help find him. But no one had seen LITTLE BOY.” his smiling exterior. One day about
customers shouting out requests to the five-year-old. six months after coming to Australia,
vendors, as well as the pungent, of- Weeks, then months passed without Joel asked Julie, “When am I going to
ten sickly-sweet aroma of the food on news. It was as if he had vanished. turn white?” She discovered he had
sale—assaulted his senses. phanage’s social worker but soon came expected his skin to “magically” turn
He began crying as he walked aim- “THEY ARE AS TALL AS TREES. They to feel at ease with both George and Ju- white after living in Australia awhile.
lessly through the crowded aisles in look like white ghosts,” thought Joel, lie. They had such kind eyes and their Another time, when he was ten
his flip-flops, shorts, and singlet, hop- as he looked up at the towering—and warm, soothing voices relaxed him. years old, he walked into the kitchen
ing to catch sight of his mother. After very white—figures of George and Julie When a social worker asked Joel if he as Julie was cooking dinner and asked
hours of searching and penetrating de Carteret at Manila’s RSCC orphan- wanted to go to Australia, he immedi- her, “So, when are we going to find
deeper and deeper into the maze-like age, which he had entered some 18 ately shook his head “yes.” After a year my mum?” Julie was startled but sat
market with no sign of Linda, the tiny, months earlier. “And they smell funny,” and a half of loneliness he once again Joel down and told him gently that,
shy five-year-old realized she was he thought. had a home and new, loving—and very as much as she wished it weren’t so,
gone and, frighteningly, knew he was The Australian couple had come tall—parents. neither she nor the Manila adop-
PHOTO/ILLUSTRATI ON CREDIT

now lost as well. to the Philippine orphanage to meet Once settled into his new Mel- tion agency knew Joel’s surname, his
A local jeepney driver named Jose Joel because they were interested in bourne home, Joel flourished. Al- mother’s or where she lived.
Manselo spotted the boy crying and adopting. Julie had not been able to though he couldn’t speak a word of “I’m sorry, love,” she told him as
curled up into a ball near the back of become pregnant, but she and George English he became fast friends with she held his tiny brown hands in hers.
the cavernous market. He instantly had been desperate to start a family. the children on his street, loved play- “But there’s no chance we could ever
knew something was wrong, but the Joel had been too young to know ing cricket, and learned English by find your mother. I wish we could but
child was too terrified to say more his mother’s name and, because watching Australian television. Often it’s just not possible. But I can tell you
than that he was lost. Manselo took no one had come forward to claim Julie would marvel as she watched this; she loved you very much.”

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LINDA HAD NEVER given workers there knew nothing about with tears and he felt a catch in his
up looking for her son. his parents or where he may have throat but continued, “Mum, I’m not
However, her visits to the lived. Joel wanted to revisit the Munoz an outsider here.”
barangay (local govern- Market, where he had been found by It was a visit to a Thailand orphan-
ment office), the police, jeepney driver Manselo, but Julie felt age in 2015 that helped convince Joel,
her announcements on it was a high crime area and much too by then an accomplished, 34-year-old
Manila radio stations, her dangerous to visit. Joel fought back documentary film maker, to search for
constant searching, had but Julie put her foot down, telling his biological mother. While he was
turned up nothing. She him again, “It’s just not safe, Joel!” filming the orphanage for an Austra-
even handed out flyers However, the three of them pored lian-based charity, a small boy walked
printed with Joel’s picture over the telephone directory, looking up to him and grabbed his hand. He
that said, “Missing Boy” for any “Manselo” listing. There was seemed to be about five or six, the
and included her address nothing. After they searched the di- same age Joel was when he entered
as well as the contacts for the Manila orphanage. The Thai boy
the barangay. Nothing. Five-year-old Jo-Jo began his frantic search for his mother tugged at Joel’s hand and led him into
Wherever she went, she on the busy streets outside Munoz Market. the dormitory to proudly show him
scanned the faces of chil- “FOR THE FIRST TIME the bed he slept in.
dren, wondering if one of them might THROUGHOUT HIS YEARS in Australia IN MY LIFE, I REALLY As the tousled-hair orphan showed
be her long lost son. His birthdays Joel often thought of his birth mother FEEL I FIT IN Joel the few toys he owned, memories
were especially hard. Each year Linda and wondered what had happened so SOMEWHERE,” JOEL came flooding back. “I slept in a bed
would invite family and friends to cel- many years ago. He remembered her TOLD JULIE. “EVERYONE like this,” Joel thought as he listened to
ebrate his birthday and pray for him loving smile and the way she would LOOKS LIKE ME.” the boy chattering away in Thai. “We
while they dined on the dish he loved wipe away his tears with her ever- both lost our parents. I wonder...”
so much; roast pig and Chinese noo- present handkerchief when he cried. On the flight back to Australia he
dles. Every birthday included laughter Then darker thoughts would bubble couldn’t get the memory of the little
and tears. “Wherever he is,” she told up. He sometimes wondered if he rectory Julie told Joel, “I’m so sorry. I Thai orphan out of his mind. As he
her sister on one of Joel’s birthdays, “I had been abandoned and once told don’t know where else we could look would admit later, “I suddenly realized
know he is in a good place.” a friend, “What if my mother wanted for him.” She saw how disappointed I needed to answer so many questions.
She hung his picture on her closet nothing to do with me and had left me Joel was but thought to herself, maybe Who was I? Where did I come from?
door so it would be the first thing she at the orphanage?” now he will realize how difficult, how Who am I? I knew what I had to do.”
saw every morning when she awoke. In 2000 Julie took him, then 18, and fruitless, it would be to keep looking
PHOTO/ILLUSTRATI ON CREDIT

Linda also kept his bicycle at the his sister, Grace, born to Julie and for his birth mother. IT’S A MILD DECEMBER morning in
clothing factory and thought of him George after they adopted Joel, to the But this first-time visit to his home 2016 and Joel has come to the Munoz
every time she saw it leaning against Philippines, where they toured the country was also very moving for Joel. Market in Quezon City, the very same
a wall. He had loved riding it around country and visited the orphanage Surrounded by brown-skinned people market he was lost in—and rescued
while she worked, and as she once Joel had lived in some 16 years earlier. who looked like him, he told Julie dur- from—some 30 years ago. He’s re-
told a co-worker, “I’m waiting for the While he was excited­—and moved ing their trip, “For the first time in my turned to the Philippines with a film
day he comes back to ride it again.” to tears—to revisit his former home, life, I really feel I fit in somewhere. Ev- crew, a translator and a dream. He’s
he was dismayed to find that social eryone looks like me.” His eyes filled come to find his birth mother.

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As he walks through the chaotic
collection of food and merchandise
vendors, he and his translator show
a picture of Joel as a five-year-old to
as many people as possible, asking,
“Lost Boy? Do you know anyone who
lost a five-year-old boy in 1985? Miss-
ing boy?”
Everyone shakes their head and
turns away.
Joel keeps in touch with Julie, reas-
suring her that Munoz Market is safe
and that, “just as importantly,” he
feels that he “fits in.” He tells her, “I
may not speak the language, Mum,
“THERE WAS A WOMAN
WHO LIVED HERE
AND LOST HER SON
IN THE 1980S,” SAID
THE VENDOR. “HE WAS
ABOUT FIVE OR SIX.”
but at least I look like everyone else
here. And everyone is trying to help
me. So don’t worry about me.” Julie
is relieved that he is safe and sound
and also is happy that Joel is forming
a bond with the country he was born
in. “Be safe,” she tells him.
Joel plasters the flyers that include
his picture with the headline, “Do You
Know Him?” in English and Tagalog
and a local contact telephone number
everywhere. Hoping to enlist the aid
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of Manila-based radio or television
stations, Joel knocks on doors to tell
his story but is rebuffed. “There are so
many missing children and so many
stories,” he hears time and time again
from media outlets. “Sorry, but we
wish you luck.”
U ndaunted, Joel and his team keep
coming back to the market, question-
ing countless stallholders, seeking out
anyone who may have been working
at Munoz Market decades ago. After
days of negative responses and false
leads, Joel and his team suddenly hear
about a vendor who has worked at the
market for years. He calls Julie: “Mum,
this might be the break I’ve been hop-
ing for!”
They track down the man, Badan
Pisngot, who confirms that he has
sold household wares at his modest
stall at the market since the 1980s. Joel
hands him the flyer he has showed to
so many other people and his trans-
lator asks if he knows anything about
the boy in the picture. “No,” he replies
as he shakes his head. “I don’t recog-
nize the boy.” But Joel urges his trans-
lator to keep questioning the man.
Eventually, after some more skillful
prodding, Pisngot remembers, “But ...
there was a woman who lived around
here and lost her son in the 1980s. He
was about five or six, I think.” Joel be-
gins shaking as he hears the news. But
the gray-haired Pisngot seems reluc-
tant to reveal any more and returns to
rearranging his stall’s pots and pans
and plastic buckets. His translator ad-

vises Joel to back off, afraid of
alienating Pisngot.
After a number of visits
from Joel over the next two
weeks, Pisngot drops the
bombshell: “I think I know
who your mother is... Her
name is Vicky.” That evening
Joel calls Julie in Melbourne
and tells her, “This could be
it. I think I’ve found her!”
When Joel meets Vicky the
next day, she is wary until
Joel shows her a picture of
him and 12 other little boys
taken at the orphange in Joel in Australia with his adoptive mom, Julie, and
1985. Vicky instantaneously sister, Grace, who was born after his adoption
points to Joel in the picture
and breaks down, sobbing and crying. He calls Julie and tells her the good
“That’s Dante! That’s my Dante!” she news: “I think I’ve found her!” Initially
wails. Joel wraps his arms around her speechless, Julie laughs and tells Joel,
and mother and son hold each other “If I had known it was going to be this
tightly as their tears flow. “Dante,” easy, I would have gone back with you
she murmurs through her tears, “My years ago!”
Dante.” Joel tells her, “Mum, I needed to do
She is convinced that Joel is her this myself.”
missing son, Dante, whom she lost Remembering how determined
near the Munoz Market so long ago. Joel has always been, Julie tells him,
She wipes her tears away and points “I know Joel. I am so proud of you.”
to her nose, then to Joel’s, laughs, and Then, a question arises. During
says, “Same. Same!” their first meeting, Vicky mentions
PHOTO/ILLUSTRATI ON CREDIT that Dante was born in 1983 and dis-
JOEL IS ON an emotional roller appeared some six years later. Joel is
coaster. Against all odds he has lo- stumped. He was born in 1980 and,
cated his biological mother and for according to the orphanage’s records,
the first time in his life he is on the went missing in 1985. Could Vicky
road to answering the question that have her dates wrong? He tells himself
has nagged him for so long: “Where that nailing down dates in the Philip-
did I come from?” pines can be tricky and she could eas-
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READER’S DIGEST 
ily be mistaken. Besides, Vicky looks
so much like him. However, even
though Joel has become so confident
that he has finally located his birth
mother, he needs to be 100 percent
certain. He asks her to take a DNA test.
WEEKS LATER the DNA results from
a laboratory in Japan arrive. Joel
nervously opens the report from the
testing service and quickly scans to
THE HARSH REALITY
HITS JOEL AND VICKY
HARD. AS HE WILL LATER
EXPLAIN, “I WANTED
SO MUCH TO BELIEVE.
I WAS CRUSHED.”
the bottom of the first page. It reads,
“Probability of Relationship: 0%.” Vicky
is not Joel’s biological mother. The
harsh reality hits Joel and Vicky hard.
As he will later explain, “I wanted so
much to believe. I was crushed.”
So was Vicky. She collapses into
his arms when she hears the results.
He lovingly strokes her hair and also
decides on the spot to continue his
search. Indeed, having come so close,
he is now more determined than ever
to keep searching for his mother. “I
need to keep going,” he tells a friend.
He calls Julie with the news, telling
her simply “It’s negative.” She is dev-
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astated for Joel. She had long feared
that he was going to get his heart
broken trying to find his biological
mother and wanted to urge him to
come back home. But she knew bet-
ter. Joel had always been determined
and persistent, ever since he had been
that little brown-skinned, five-year-
old boy struggling to learn English.
She knew he would not give up his
search this easily.
After Joel calls her—even though
she knows what he will say—she asks
him, “Well, what happens now, Joel?”
Without skipping a beat, Joel replies,
“You know, I have to get out there and
start looking all over again.”
Says Julie, “I knew you’d say that.”
ALTHOUGH JOEL HAD BEEN turned
down many times by media outlets in
the Philippines, once producers at the
GMA Network, one of the largest ra-
dio and television networks in the na-
tion, heard that he might be close to
locating his birth mother, they began
to cover his story. Joel was invited to
tell about his search on radio. A film
crew from “Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho,”
starring the Philippines’ equivalent
of the U.S.’s Oprah Winfrey, began
working on a three-part television
documentary after they learned that
Joel had located Vicky. It was titled
“Jo-Jo’s Search,” using a common local
nickname.
The media coverage had come just
in time. Joel and his own team had
left no stone unturned at the Munoz

Market and the surrounding neigh- found her son but mine was gone.”
borhood, but now that Vicky’s DNA She never learned that Vicky’s DNA
test had come back negative, they test turned out to be negative and that
were anxious to have a wider, national Joel was still looking for his mother.
platform to tell Joel’s story.
Joel jumped at the chance to tell— THE GMA NET WORK was flooded
and retell—his story. He cooperated with emails after the first installment
with Jessica Soho’s team, offering of their documentary about Joel aired.
them some of the documentary foot- Most were from well-wishers or were
age his own film team had shot since requests for help in locating other
his arrival in the Philippines. He ap- long-lost children. However, one
peared on a popular drive-time radio email immediately grabbed the at-
show hosted by GMA’s vice president tention of the show’s producers. Fili-
Mike Enriquez and told of his quest to pino expatriate Dolly Arcaido, who
find his biological mother. Joel’s hope had moved to Japan decades ago,
was that someone who was listening had watched the first episode of the
to his radio interviews or watching documentary on cable TV, and it had
Soho’s multi-part television docu- jogged her memory. She explained
mentary could help. that her mother had a friend who
Someone was watching. had lived in a house in Quezon City,
Amazingly, Linda, who still cel- not far from the Munoz Market. That
ebrated her son’s birthday every year woman’s five-year-old boy had disap-
and never stopped praying that he peared around the time Joel said he
would be safe, watched the first part did. The woman’s name, said Dolly,
of the three-part documentary on was Linda.
Joel’s search as she sat in her Que- She emailed the network pictures
zon City home. She was intrigued by of Linda and her son from the early
the story of the lost boy but she also 1980s and added astonishing de-
found it painful; it brought back so tails. She said that Linda had been
many memories of her own loss. a dressmaker and that the man she
When she saw that the young was seeing after her husband left was
English-speaking man in the docu- a jeepney driver. She had no idea
mentary, who seemed to be around where Linda lived now but she also
the same age as her long-missing said that the little boy’s name was “Jo-
son, had found his birth mother, she el,” which was a common name in the
quickly turned off her television. Later Philippines.
she would confess, “I was so jealous What were the chances? Could
and sad at the same time. I couldn’t Linda be Joel’s birth mother? Or
watch any more. That mother had would this lead, like so many others,
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She shot back an email to Joel:
“That’s you, Joel! I’d recognize
you anywhere! It could not be
anyone else.” The search was
back on.
ARMED WITH THE three-de-
cades old photograph of Linda
with him cradled in her lap, Joel
returned to the same streets in
Quezon City he had canvassed
before. “Do you know this
woman?” he asked everyone he
could, “Her name is Linda.”
He went back to the Munoz
Market and showed the pictures
to stallholders. No one recog-
nized the picture of the woman
in her early twenties. Joel re-
Linda holds three-year-old Joel on her lap, alized that so much time had
surrounded by friends. passed that the chance anyone
would recognize Linda were
prove to be another dead end? slim. But he kept showing her picture.
When Joel saw the pictures and Undaunted, he went on radio again,
learned what Dolly had said, he telling his story time and time again,
broke out in goose bumps. “What are asking if anyone knew—or remem-
the odds?” he asked his team. “She bered—anything about Linda. On
looks like me, she was a dressmaker Mike Enriquez’s radio show he spoke
and her son’s name was Jo-el!” But he directly to Linda: “This is Joel, your
soon calmed himself down, remem- lost boy who went missing in 1985.
bering how disappointed he had been All I want to do is just to meet you
with Vicky’s failed DNA test. This time and know who you are and to let you
he vowed to go slower and keep his know that I actually turned out okay.”
emotions in check. As he said, “I don’t He spoke movingly on Jessica Soho’s
want to get all my hopes up and have national television show, again ad-
them shattered again.” dressing his long-lost mother: “No
However, after Julie received the matter what happened in the past, I
picture of the woman holding her hope we can put that all aside, just re-
young child, she had no doubts. connect and let you know that I have
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been blessed.” He blinked back a tear
and added, “I can’t move on with my
life without knowing that you exist.”
He followed up the few leads that
trickled in. One said Linda had been
spotted living as a squatter in the
notoriously dangerous Manila North
Cemetery in La Loma. Joel and his
crew, along with a security detail,
staked out the cemetery for days, ask-
DOUBTS BEGAN TO
CREEP INTO JOEL’S MIND.
“WHAT IF LINDA
ABANDONED ME? WHAT
IF SHE HAS NO INTEREST
IN MEETING ME?”
ing if anyone had seen Linda. No one
had.
On one of his interviews he ended
his message to Linda by saying, “I
would really love to meet you and am
praying that you want to meet me as
well.” When lead after lead turned up
nothing, doubts began to creep into
Joel’s mind. “What if Linda aban-
doned me?” “What if she has no in-
terest in meeting me?” he wondered.
“Or is she out there somewhere living
rough, destitute?” “Is she dead?” He
fought against these dark thoughts,
trying to stay positive, hoping against
hope that he would eventually locate
his mother.
READER’S DIGEST
WHILE DRIVING THROUGH the busy
streets in a suburb outside Manila,
dodging jeepneys and jaywalkers as
he drove his small delivery truck to
drop off an order, Amado Rio was
listening to Mike Enriquez’s morning
radio show. As he heard Joel tell his
story about his search for Linda and
the dead ends and twists and turns
he had encountered during his time
in Manila, he suddenly realized that
his wife Herminia, whom he had mar-
ried nearly 25 years ago, might be the
woman Joel is looking for. He knew
she had lost a son decades ago, before
they met. But, he wondered, who was
“Linda?”
Amado was hesitant to mention Jo-
el’s story to his wife. He remembered
how upset she had recently gotten
while watching the GMA documen-
tary about a lost boy who eventually
found his birth mother. He even re-
called her turning off the show be-
fore it ended. Nevertheless, the next
morning he asked her, “Were you ever
called Linda?”
“Yes, long ago,” she told him.
Amado paused, then walked over to
Herminia and held her hand, saying,
“I think your son is looking for you.”
IT IS A LITTLE PAST ELEVEN in the
morning on February 9, 2017, and
Herminia Rio is riding through the
traffic-clogged streets of Quezon City
in a van supplied by the GMA Net-
work. She has been unable to sleep
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READER’S DIGEST 
Joel with Julie and Herminia. Julie filled Herminia in on Joel’s life in Australia.
for the last 24 hours, ever since she
contacted the network and told them
that she was “Linda,” the mysterious
woman in the photograph. asks one of the television producers.
When the television producers
came to her home and showed her
a picture of Joel at five years old, she
had broken down in tears. “My Joel,”
was all she could manage to say at
first. Then, after showing them other
pictures of her and Joel from the
early 1980s, she convinced them that
she was Joel’s birth mother. Between
sobs she asked them, “Where is Joel?
I want to hug him!”
Now she is on her way to meet the
man whom she is sure is her long-
lost son. As the van rounds a corner
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where she is due to meet Joel for the
first time, she again breaks down in
tears. “Please give me a minute,” she
“I need to stop crying.”
A few minutes later, after wiping her
eyes dry and breathing deeply to calm
herself, she spots Joel standing on a
street corner, awaiting her and sur-
rounded by a television crew and in-
PHOTO/ILLUSTRATI ON CREDIT
terested bystanders. Even at a distance
she recognizes him instantly. “It is Jo-
Jo,” she says to herself. Her son, whom
she has not seen in 30 years, is now
standing only yards away. She feels
her heart beating faster as she walks
over to him. Clutching pictures of Joel
as a five year old in her left hand, she

shyly, nervously approaches him and
asks, “Are you Jo-Jo?”
He answers, “I am,” and smiles ner-
vously back at her. Then he asks, “Are
you Herminia?”
She nods. For a brief moment both
say nothing. Then Herminia, too over-
come to say anything else, starts sob-
bing and falls into Joel’s arms. Words
are unnecessary as mother and son
wrap their arms tightly around one
another and cry.
The television cameras catch the
warm embrace and also the moment
that will touch the hearts of millions
of television viewers. Wrapped in
each other’s arms, Herminia notices
Joel crying and gently wipes away
his tears with her handkerchief, just
as she had done so often more than
thirty years ago. At long last, against
all odds, her son has come back home.
Editor’s Note: A DNA test confirmed
what Herminia and Joel already knew;
that she is his biological mother. Julie
needed no such confirmation. As soon
as she saw the video, which she reports
she has watched “time and time again”
of Herminia wiping away Joel’s tears,
she knew Joel had finally found his
birth mother, because “only a mother
would do that.”
Since being reunited with Joel, Her-
minia has met his adoptive mother
Julie, who has filled her in on Joel’s life
in Australia, and Herminia has visited
them both in his adopted home. Dur-
ing his search, Joel also located his bio-
logical father, who now lives in the
United States. Neither Vicky’s long-lost
son, Dante, or Jose Manselo, the taxi
driver who rescued Joel from the Mu-
noz Market, have been located, but
Joel has pledged to keep searching for
them. He is working on a documentary
based on his own story that he hopes
will bring awareness to adoption and
help adoptees, as he says, “write the
blank pages of their own narrative.”
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10•2018 [[2R]]|