Storytime Tapestry Newsletter

The newsletter devoted to spreading love and cultural awareness throughout the world.

Special Treat ??“ Linda Ann Henry

March 28, 2006

? 

? 

Do you remember me

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?  The story of Linda Ann Henry

? 

I was born in a hospital in Delaware. My mother was unwed. Her name was Anna Hilda Conaway. She was 17 and had mental health problems. My father was James Stallery. He was 18. He was a little on the slow side. I do not really know what happen between them but they separated when my mother found out she was going to have me. I was born on the day before Thanksgiving on 11/23/1949.

? 

Six months before I was born a friend of hers told Mom she knew a women who wanted to adopt a baby and they would get money for the adoption if they did it right. My father was never told. At 12:45am, on the 23 I was born. My adopted mother was a 31 year old woman who could not have children. She also had mental problems, with mood swings.

? 

She was born in Delaware, her family lived there, but she was now living with her husband in New York City. Her name was Anne Marie Henry and a lawyer from New York set the adoption up. My adopted father was William Woodrow Henry. He was 32 and did not want a child. Because my adopted mother wanted me, he took me.

? 

The problem with all this is my birth Mom nor my birth father, who did not even know I was being adopted, did not? signed any papers releasing me. The hospital called my father and asked if he wanted to see me before I left the hospital which he did.

? 

I never knew I was adopted or anything about my past. When I was six my adopted mother burnt my adoption papers. When I was 8 my mother found out I had a learning problem, and a little mental health problems too. My mother thought I was lazy, not knowing any history about my birth parents and banged my head against the wall. She did that until I was 12. Today I am in a wheelchair since the year 2000 with nerve damage and a rare illness called RSD. I have only a third grade education.

? 

When I was young there was two roads I knew I could take. One was the violent road the other which I took was the road to helping birth mothers and adoptee's like myself. I was told by my adopted father when I was 51, a year after I got nerve damage that I was adopted and everyone knew except me.

? 

I lived with a puzzle of who I was and also lived with the pain of adoption for two years. With the help of a good search angel I found at Yahoo, I found my mom in 2003, but she was in a nursing home and did not remember me. I found my father, thanks to my sister Christina, who somehow got mom to tell her, in 2005. I have only met my one brother Tom, since I am sick and rarely go out I never as yet met my dad or his children.

? 

I look like mom's twin, but I have not met her or her other four children.

I believe that people are still good. I see in my mind the beauty of what I call "God's Art".

I love Jesus and He has given me my gift of poetry. I call myself "The people's poet" because I write for those who suffer, in pain, or loss in adoption as I was.

? 

? 

? 

TO MY MOTHER? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 

Linda Ann Henry

? 

I had a mother I never knew

Yet she loved me with a love that was true

I have seen a picture, she looks just like me

I can almost touch her or let her be
I am the first child of her heart

When she saw me, she made a mark

? 

I have a mother I never knew

When the doctors brought me to see

She told him how beautiful

I turned out to be

I look just like her even today

When I look in the mirror

I smile, in a special way

? 

I have a mother I never knew

She always remembers

The child who was true

She gave me life

She wanted more time

It was not easy to makeup her mind

? 

I had a mother I never knew

Every Mother's Day, Mom

I will light a candle for you

Please be happy, you loved me enough

You let me go, to someone you trust

? 

Linda Ann Henry

? 

linda11231949@aol.com

Do you remember me

The people's poet

? 

With ? love to Anna Hilda Conaway (Buchler)

In my heart lives a candle that will live for ever.