Rescued From A Romanian Orphanage: Who Is My Birth Mother? | Lost And Found | Only Human

[Music] tonight on lost and found 25 years ago simona was rescued from a romanian orphanage and given a new life in new zealand i'd get verbally racially told to go back to my own country now she's heading back to romania to try to find her birth mother where i came to sign the consent i don't have any idea why i was given away and it may not be possible to find the answer do you have any records here no families that are lost and found it's angry for many many years they're always unpredictable [Music] there's a way to make an entrance my destiny it was now a conspiracy of witches download veli today hi my name is simona and i was adopted at a very young age from romania i have a son now and i would like him to know where he's from and who his family is i've always wanted to know my birth mother i also know i have brothers and sisters over there [Music] can you help me please in order to move forward sometimes you have to go back [Music] simona watkinson is 28 years old almost exactly the same age her romanian birth mother was when she handed over her baby to an orphanage do you want to pick some more flowers over there griffin today simona works in a paint shop and is a single mum to three-year-old griffin griffin's dad is not involved in raising his son and simona brings him up with lots of family support [Music] so you want some help to find your mum in romania yeah i do in new zealand you walked into quite a family didn't you well i came into a a rather large family actually i've got a brother and two sisters and i grew up with a family dog and a happy childhood you know i got taught how to speak english and and learn how to swim but when it came to primary school i'd get verbally racially told to go back to my own country and who are you and where are you from and i couldn't answer those questions and those taunts and and things that i received from the children it made me feel like an alien because i don't have that knowledge of where i'm from and who i'm about i'm a kiwi at heart but there is part of me that's missing and i need to know what that part is i'm wanting to know what that part is my birth mother i think she's she was a very strong woman to give up a child in regards to my own son you know that i would never have been able to give him up for adoption you know that's not something that i would have been able to do that's a very hard thing for it for a mother to do to give her child away and i think she's a strong woman for that for the past 25 years francis watkinson has been simona's mother [Music] you were a mum with three teenagers why did you go to romania to adopt a child we went to romania because we heard in the media all the terrible things that were happening to children and one of my sisters told us that that's what they were going to do and we had had that in our mind for a little while and it just really cemented the idea that we might help a child that we had room that we had love in our hearts and that we wanted to share that with a child who perhaps didn't have those opportunities when francis and her then-husband went to romania they'd already seen terrible television images of abandoned children many were severely traumatized starved and tied to chairs but nothing prepared them for the horrors they were to witness we saw children lump together in groups some of the things in the bedrooms and bathrooms were appalling children eating while sitting on the potty our worry was that these children were going to have difficulties developing into normal functioning adults francis a social worker understood family dynamics the prospect of adopting a child that had been potentially damaged by the orphanage experience did not phase her once we met simona there was no way we wanted to leave her there the watkinsons took lots of photos daughter andrea was eight at the time of simone's adoption you actually picked us because we went into the orphanage and there were all these kids about 17 of them and the man who took us in went to the staff and said where's the child simona and by then you had done this flying jump into your father's arms and he turned around and staff said that's simona and he said how did you know that was the child simona we said we didn't but it was because you were the oldest in that group and i think that you had a bit of mana [Applause] the watkinsons were just one family of 150 from new zealand who went to romania to help and brought children back to raise them in what they hoped would be a better life i don't see her as not being my biological child i don't ever think there is any reason to see her differently than the other three she's just my daughter you were very smart when you came home you still are i'm quite a confident being we couldn't believe how beautiful you were and that if this was going to be for real that we would get so lucky you know like you were beautiful you had dirty [Music] and you were very smelly but you were beautiful during the adoption process simona's birth mother was required to sign a consent form so francis got a fleeting glimpse of the woman who was giving simona up i wanted to tell her about me sort of to say you know um someone is going to be okay how does it feel for you that your daughter is now looking for her birth mum i'm really really excited even though this is not excitement i'm really really happy for her no matter what i just want her to know what her birth connections are but also how that fits with her culture and her heritage and to be able to pass that on to her little boy it's important to me that she does it and i'm 100 there with her so this is the story of simona's two mothers the one who gave her life and the one who gave her a home simona thanks to francis has her full adoption records although much of it's in romanian she knows her date of birth her name and the name of her birth mother maria motok and from what francis has told her it appears she had brothers and sisters i need to find someone in romania to help me a person on the ground with local knowledge oh hello is that mihai look i'm looking for a bit of help i'm coming to romania shortly to try and track down a um a woman and i need not only help with interpreting but a little bit of help with searching for her that sounds like you i head to romania to find a woman who may not appreciate me searching for her that's it she's even alive [Music] romania i arrive in the city of yash and then head to the north east of the country to the town where simona was born [Applause] up until 1989 communist romania was behind the iron curtain but after the fall of dictator nikolai chaucesky and his speedy execution everything changed since 2007 romania has been a member of the european union i'm in tsuchava a city of over a hundred thousand in romania's north east mihai radu a romanian journalist and interpreter briefs me on how things work in romania it's a country of red tape there's bureaucracy everywhere finding maria motok won't be easy the good news is that mihai has found the location of simone's orphanage and has official permission for us to visit the next day great square yeah typical comedy square center of the town yeah very utilitarian yeah in the area and communists block the flats all around i made a call to the town hall of lieutenant where she was born the mother simona okay looks like nobody knows her usually some villages know they know each other they know where they are and what they do so what do you recommend next since we're under someone so java i suggest in order to go to the orphanage see whether the orphanage is still in place yeah and hoping you know they will get some they will have some a phone number or something sounds a good place to start let's go [Music] when a regime collapsed around 50 000 children went into state care about half into orphanages you think this is this is the orphanage yeah this is the orphanage most were not actually orphans but in a country in economic ruin their parents including simone's mother couldn't afford to look after them the paintings and all that it certainly looks like it could have been doesn't it yeah yeah go and see eh the building is now offices for the romanian child services all that's left of the old orphanage where simona spent 18 months are murals painted on the outside walls we have luck one of the administrators used to work at the orphanage so this definitely was the orphanage [Music] 400 children and we're the social worker we try to get the children out of here into foster families you used to work here didn't you so what was it like for the children there were small rooms with a lot of children zero to three years old imagine lots of children and a little little stuff so imagine the conditions we're trying to find what happened to one child and trying to find her birth mother um do you have any records here which could help us okay thank you anyway welcome [Music] it's good to get a sense of where simona lived if simona's mother maria is alive she could be anywhere many romanians have become economic refugees which means they now live and work all over europe we need official help and in this former communist country that means the police i have good news that at the february search they found her in the town of thoughts she's there temporarily so she's alive she's alive and what before we head to radute's 40 minutes drive away i decide it's time to call simona back in new zealand oh hi simone it's david here hi hi frances and andrea hi hi well look as you can probably see i'm actually here in romania i'm in sioux java and we've made a bit of progress in trying to find your mum yep look i just have to stress though we haven't found her yet okay but it's good knowing that she's alive and that she is in romania really and we know which town she's in i was wondering whether you could come over here to romania because i think we can find her seriously shaking like one thing [Music] so do you think you could come over yeah yeah definitely yeah i don't believe it i'm so [Music] so you better start learning a few romanian phrases oh my goodness [Music] well i look forward to seeing you here bye not only is simona coming but her family has decided that francis and andrea will both come to support her meanwhile mihai and i had full reduce it's a town of 20 000 people hopefully we'll find maria motok before the watkinsons get here but we strike a problem the local police have no record of maria motok so we visit the local council in the hope that they may have some information i was thinking we should go to this office here in the woods and look you know to see if they have something more appropriate if not i think the last resort we have to either ask people on the streets or not the local council also has no record of maria we don't have time to wait for official help so we have no choice but to start doing our own detective work [Music] is the cyclist do you want to stop the cyclist and see if we can get him familiar no he doesn't know finally we find someone who tells us she knows where maria motof lives and can give us directions to her house but it's the wrong address i'm beginning to wonder if i'm dragging simona andrea and their mother halfway across the world only to disappoint [Music] simona watkinson the 28 year old former romanian orphan is back in her homeland on a quest to find a mother who abandoned her supporting her her new zealand mother and sister francis and andrea watkinson with virtually no memory of the romania simona is eager to understand the country she left behind as a three-year-old in 1990 it's pretty amazing isn't it look at this the colors of the rooves are quite vibrant on these houses oh my god look at this awesome cart coming up wow despite the fact that romania is one of the poorest countries in europe life is now more prosperous than it was at the time of the chaucesky regime there's something to be said for keeping your history isn't it not just going ultra modern i saw a lady leaving the eight pretzels on it [Music] oh oh goodness look at these can i get one of these um chocolate some yes just one thank you happy really good still can't even believe that i'm actually here do you want me to pinch you [Music] [Applause] francis is recalling for simona what she can remember of the adoption process all those years ago i think this is the building this is where we came to meet maria yeah and get her to sign the consent does it look still the same i don't know yeah there's a familiarity about it but remember it was all winter yeah what did she say to you or look like it on that day that you spoke to her well we didn't i didn't speak romanian and she didn't speak english but she was um short yeah she had on a scarf and i could see that she had fair hair she had a small baby with her and um she seemed to me to be a lovely person for france's coming back to reduce evokes a strange mix of feelings some relating to the past and some to the present simona who left romania when she was barely three soaks in the sights and the smells as she struggles to reconnect with her origins amazing country isn't it this church was here 300 years before tasman got to new zealand it's almost unbelievable isn't it what do you think life would have been like for simona if she'd stayed here yeah in the early years i think it would have been fairly harsh i think she probably would have stayed in an orphanage until she was 15 or 16 and then i don't know what from there on being here must be quite hard for you because essentially your daughters come looking for another mother i'm just i'm really glad that i'm part of it with her i just feel happy for her that she'll get some answers about who she is and where she came from like the others she's my daughter and i'm still her mum and her birth mother is an important person in her life and you are you ready i hope so yeah i hope so i feel excited but i also think gosh [Music] i don't want her to be hurt i suppose that's the big thing i just hope it's all good the watkinsons have been in romania for three days if it's a deeply emotional experience for francis it's even more complex for simona it's quite a surprise actually i was expecting a lot more sort of poverty so it's actually quite nice to come here it's like a breath of fresh air it makes me feel whole whereas you know i feel more at home here than i do in new zealand because i know that my family is here somewhere do you have regrets about going to new zealand or being taken to new zealand no not really just knowing that um what life would have been like back when i was adopted i think it would have [Music] i think i got given the opportunity in new zealand to be able to grow up and live and know how to be a person i have regrets of the way that i felt [Music] about being adopted and being taken out of my my birthplace and then taken to another place and having to learn how to get by not knowing your own native tongue um and having people treat you differently because you're you know you're not from around there whereas here now that i've come back to romania i feel like i'm more um that part of me is still here and i'm needing to get that part back your mum did try to give you some romanian upbringing in new zealand i think i probably get more of it while i'm here than when i was growing up in new zealand i have more of an understanding now of what mum had had told me and taught me about romania now that i'm actually here i kind of get a fulfillment of that information and i you know understand it more now than when i did when i was younger now that i've come here and i've kind of think about some of those things that i've thought or possibly have said um i regret thinking that way now that i'm back here it's just it makes me feel alive more i feel like i've got closure now that i've come here but more closure when i when you know when i get to meet my mother if i get to meet her there's a little girl on a swing over there do you do you ever think that could have been you yeah i do i do it could have been me [Music] but then again if i had been adopt you know being in an orphanage i don't think you would have been given that opportunity to be able to be in the park and playing on a swing but if my mother hadn't given me up then i don't know i probably could have been that kid on that swing over there but don't you feel the times come for you [Music] mihai meanwhile has made some progress finding an address for maria so you think it's the lady reckons it's going to be this house yeah definitely this house let's hope it's right it's the right woman and she's willing because it will be a big surprise on her we now know where maria lives but we have no idea how she'll react daughter is looking for her she's incredibly shocked she's very surprised that i will visit you know so she has to sing through i'll give her my number and you know ask her to call when once she settle and talk to the other family it's impossible to tell whether maria is happy or angry i decide this is not the moment to show her the video message simona has done for her thank you this feels like it could go either way how do i tell simona that her mother might not want to see her [Music] you know when i did the video call to you in new zealand and i said that your mother was alive when we were searching and i said there was jeopardy yep well i met your mother yesterday and um there's a big butt yes she's in total shock and she's at the moment hasn't agreed to meet you [Music] simona watkinson is a 28 year old mother from south auckland she's in romania with her mum and her sister hoping to find her birth mother well i met your mother yesterday and there's a big butt yes she's in total shock and uh she's at the moment hasn't agreed to meet you [Music] it's understandable mihai and i met her and as i say she's in total shock but she has me highest number and hopefully she'll ring either this evening or tomorrow morning and and let us know whether she will meet you [Music] she didn't say she'd thought about you is she far away did it's about two kilometers away she's so close we need to go for a bit of time so it's not great news but it's progress well she knows i'm here she knows you're here she knows you're looking for her a nervous 24 hours yes [Music] waiting on a birth mother's decision is hard for some owner so to help fill in the time i asked our interpreter mihai radu who was a student during the communist era to tell simona about romania's dark days so we had when ciacheski got overthrown what was life like here in romania it was no food available on the market power cut no heating in the homes so it would have been tough for um like my birth mother and three or four children back then a single mother without being married in the communist romania who it was something outrageous was it a common thing for a lot of children to be sort of adopted out or put into orphanages oh yeah yeah they just couldn't afford to raise them this was a problem no money no food the expected time of maria's call comes and goes mihai and i sit down and try to come up with a backup plan but then i have no idea who mihai is talking to she said no she's willing to miss him cheers [Music] maria has said she will meet us but will she really come it's a nervous wait we don't know how she really feels about simona should be coming and the adoption all those years ago so what time was she going to be here two o'clock [Music] just hope she turns up it'll be interesting to find out what she's thought about all these years [Music] sarawak hello again thank you maria brings her two youngest paul and alexandra both were born into the new romania but it's the bad old romania i want to ask her about what happened why did you give her up for adoption [Music] [Music] [Music] but then his father came and took him away from me and raised him somewhere else maria explains that simona was adopted because the man she describes as her husband who's now dead did not want to look after another man's child when when we knocked on the door and said simone is looking for you how did you feel the nostalgic um right so so maria if you push that button hi maria i've been looking for you if you've seen this this means that david's found you i really would love to meet you and see who you're about i've thought about you many many years and wondered you know where you're at and and how you are i've grown up kiwi here in my backyard i just feel like something's missing and i would really love for me to meet you and get to know who you are and so for you to get to know who i am and i would really really love for you to say yes to that [Music] the best i would like you to meet also i would like to hug you the bear steps i hardly waited to see her to hug her personally like i was young years ago and paul and alexander you happy to have a big sister yeah they're very excited they look forward to seeing meetings tomorrow that's great maria was 22 and unmarried when she got pregnant for the first time with simona's older brother it was a time when contraception was outlawed in romania she went on to have six children as we've heard simone's full brother was taken away when simona was just a baby [Music] despite her hardships maria has had the same job since she was 16. she varnishes wood in a furniture factory but at 51 is hoping for early retirement the past 24 hours have been tough for the watkinsons lots of tea and lots of tears i've got some news for you we got a phone call last night and um i've just been to meet with your mother again and she'd love to meet you [Music] we met her down at a local park and showed her that video you did and she was in tears watching [Music] she said she had never forgotten you and always hoped that you would return she told us that after mihai and i had met her that thursday but she went inside and cried and her children came in and said mum why are you crying and she said because my daughter's coming back [Music] it's wonderful [Music] i almost feel like i've gone full circle now this is me this is my my place to be i get closure from it she's very excited to meet you too francis she is we're a twosome about the other so happy quite happy about it really and a lot more i'm clear on where i stand in the world and where i stand as a person more than anything and it's enlightened me it's actually made me feel a lot better as a person because i was angry for many many years i'm really sorry [Music] that constant why me and being told by many people that i should feel grateful that i got adopted out [Music] so francis 25 years ago you came to romania to try and help a young child and he ended up with simone yeah today's the day she's going to meet her birth mum so i'm going to leave it to you to organize taking simone to me to her other mum thank you right we can go take her over here come on [Music] you know there's still some things i feel like i need to say and you know that this is about happiness and i knew we'd be back to do this because this was as much of your life as what has been with us [Music] it's the right time sweetie [Music] supporting her are her mother francis and her big sister andrea a new day and a huge addition to your life a different way that i look at life just around the corner maria is waiting sotu is one of simona's half-sisters reluca who has arrived overnight from germany [Music] oh [Music] when i saw samana hagmaria i thought that this is a life-changing event for her it's been so long for me to wait to be able to see her and be able to hug her it's just amazing [Laughter] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] she don't have the words to describe is so emotional so happy [Music] it's fitting that simona has two sisters here a romanian one and a kiwi one and each is supporting their own mother hello hi hi i'm andrea hugging maria i just felt really grateful so good to see you i'm really happy for her and she's connected with her mom [Music] can you say to maria simona has her two moms together [Music] [Laughter] [Music] having both my mum's there it's so surreal it's um it's like a dream it's just wonderful it's amazing [Music] for maria the return of her daughter is a blessing and she needs to take simona to a special place a devout romanian orthodox she takes simone to where she often prayed for her return [Music] my mama took me to the church that i was baptized in mama my birth family being a religious family was quite a moving time for me i think because i didn't realize that i had the religious roots [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] maria has prepared a romanian feast to celebrate simona's return and at the dinner another of simona's sisters anastasia so you two are half sisters yes yes anastasia cannot understand how her mother could have given a child away she wants to know why it was simona and not her the baby at the time who was placed in the orphanage for the first time reluca and anastasia discovered that it was their father who didn't want simona i'm really pleased that we've had this conversation because it was an important one to have simona now has the answers she was looking for including the name of her birth father and may one day try to find him too i'm a lot more happier now than knowing where i'm from and who i am definitely it's cleared a lot of um darkness from my life for sure [Music] simona has not only met her birth mother maria she's also met her romanian grandmother and she's been in contact with her full brother tabiru who she hopes to meet one day back in new zealand simone is happily keeping in touch with them all the most significant change i've seen in simona is that she's a lot lighter about who she is it's one of the best things we've done we have this other whole family that are part of us because of simona they're both very strong women and it was good to see them reunite again and and almost like as though they were best of friends [Music] next week on lost and found i was buzzing out from me growing up without his father ted was shocked to see him on tv he last saw his mother when he was four the circumstances were pretty unpleasant

Channel: Only Human

Views: 124,592

Keywords: Only Human, Only Human channel, full documentary, full episode, Channel 5 documentaries, mental health documentaries, amazing humans stories, life journeys, extraordinary human documentary, full documentary 2022, full documentary 2021, lost and found

Id: UI_IH2vlo9o

Length: 44min 26sec (2666 seconds)

Published: Sat May 14 2022