Page 7 - Sarita Maybin

Coming Home

Living a Life Missed Through Words & Images

By Dawn Nicoli

Photos by Dawn Nicoli/Nicoli Productions

KNEW FROM A VERY We had an address! I wrote
y
I oung age that I was differ- my mother a letter and soon
ent. I did not come from my flew out to meet her. It was a
mother’s stomach like everyone magical experience and one
else. I was adopted. that filled a deep void in my life
For anyone who has never and perhaps hers also.
known their birth parents, it is I have been back to Ireland
a very odd sensation to wonder four more times and each time
how you got here. I wondered is no less magical.
if I was an alien who had fallen The first time was to meet
from the sky. my mother. The second was for
But I knew I had a mother her funeral five years later. The
somewhere, and when I was third was for one of my cousin’s
old enough, I hired a private weddings, and the last two for
detective to find her. family reunions.
The detective found my The family has always treat-
birthmother, over in Ireland ed me with welcoming arms,
along with my aunts, uncle, like a long-lost surprise. To say
my four cousins and even my that I have been blessed is more
87-year-old grandmother. than a cliché; it’s nothing less

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