Silver and Gold Magazine Winter 2014-2015 | Page 19

Your community needs you... Can you help?
4) What’s it like being a Foster Parent?

Children just want to know they matter.
For me, fostering was a normal part of growing up, as my
experience began with my grandparents on my mother’s side
and carried on with my parents, my sister, and my wife and
I. My uncle Herbert was a foster child in my grandparent’s
home as was my aunt Dorthea.
It is hard to explain the relationship between Herbie and I
since he was always there; we had scarlet fever together, slept
in the same bed and were just close. It wasn’t until he was
no longer under the “system” and my grandparent’s offered
him a choice of being adopted (he was 18) and becoming
a Taylor or to carry on as a Harrison. Herbie decided to be
adopted…. And I was honored with an uncle.
I will be 70 at the end of November and Herbie is now 78,
our relationship continues to this day.
As for aunt Dorthea, she wasn’t adopted but the contact
between our families continues to this day. I was