Flumes Vol. 2 Issue 2 Winter 2017 | Page 112

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There must be comfort in that familiarity, in knowing.

I was left with a locket in a white jewelry box purchased from a small store in Lindsay, Ontario, and a letter, it was very ‘little orphan Annie.’ The letter, written in the rounded and controlled scroll of someone lost in the void between child and adult, the i’s all dotted with wee circles, reads:

April 1978

When your mother and father give you this letter to read, you will be mature enough to understand why I have given you up for adoption when you are just a few days old.

Believe me it is a very difficult thing to do - to relinquish someone that is very, very dear to me. To give you up hurts me very much but, under the circumstances, it is best for both of us. I am a teenager, too young to settle down to raise a family, and with years of education still ahead of me.

Your adopted parents can give you a home full of happiness and love. They can also give you so many more essentials of life than I could provide for you. I hope that you will love them as much as they love you and that you will realize just how fortunate you are to have such wonderful parents.

I am giving you this locket as a token of my love. Please don’t condemn me for giving you up. I had to think of your future. I know that you will grow up to be a fine young woman and will make your parents very proud of their adopted daughter.

God bless you!