Mother gave away THREE babies by knocking at strangers' door: Heart-warming story of how siblings were reunited after 60 years

By: Unknown on 19:44

Share it Please

Tweet

No one will ever know what went through the young mother’s mind as she knocked on doors, begging strangers to take her three-month- old daughter.

It was the summer of 1946 in the Potteries village of Bucknall.

She was turned down twice before the third stranger agreed to take her baby in.

At which point Rosemary, then 28, promptly disappeared to fetch the baby’s few belongings from her lodgings around the corner.

It was a brutal — some might say callous — parting, which would have far-reaching ramifications.

‘I was that baby,’ says Rita Holford, who 67 years on is visibly shaken by the very thought. ‘To this day I can’t get over being given away like that — and by someone who went to great lengths to ensure I would never find her.’

Even more shocking is the fact that Rita was one of three unwanted babies — dubbed Rosemary’s Secrets — rejected by the same woman within seven years.

 

And it seems all three were abandoned in the same manner — by their mother banging on strangers’ doors until someone took in the babies. 

Though Rita has uncovered many clues — including the fact her mother also had two daughters she decided to keep —  Rosemary’s motivation remains a  mystery: what possessed her to just give away three of her five children?

We know she was a barmaid brought up in Northumberland.

She had jet-black hair and loved dancing. We know she was married at least twice. We know her maiden name was Redmayne and her first married name was Tweddell. 

She moved from lodging to lodging in the Potteries. And that’s it.

‘When I discovered the story I was so angry about it all,’ says Rita. ‘Then when I later find out I had two brothers I felt angry for all those wasted years when we didn’t know each other. It seems so unfair.’

All this would be inconceivable in today’s era of adoption agencies, vetting by social workers and criminal records checks.

But just after the war, simply giving a child away was a fast solution for a desperate woman gambling that a bonny baby would stir maternal instincts in a stranger with the means to feed and clothe her.

Fortunately, Rita found herself in a warm, loving family. ‘My mother, Lily, may not have been the woman who gave birth to me, but she was wonderful,’ says Rita.

‘She dedicated her whole life to bringing me up.’ 

Lily Corden, a factory worker, was married to Harold, a bus driver, and they had a 15-year-old son when Rita entered their lives.
Lily told friends that she didn’t hesitate when Rosemary came to her door, attracted by the beautiful, bouncing baby in her arms. 

It may seem astonishing that she welcomed a new arrival with such a calm, matter-of-fact attitude — but it’s entirely in keeping with her character. For she and her husband created a blissfully happy home for Rita — until 11 years on, tragedy struck when Harold, then 54, died of thrombosis.

It was then that Rita discovered she had been adopted. ‘I was watching my mother go through insurance  papers when I spotted a paper headed “adoption”,’ she says.

‘As soon as she saw me trying to peek, she snatched it away. But I sneaked back into the living room when she went to work and found my adoption certificate. It was incredibly shocking.


‘Though I knew the papers must be telling the truth, I couldn’t believe I was adopted by this woman who had taken such wonderful care of me.’