Searching For The Son I Gave Away When I was A Teenager | Lost And Found Only Human

[Music] tonight on lost and found a sydney mother of six family is just absolutely everything in my life the family hasn't always come easily i had to give up everything and i cried my eyes out the search for a child left behind i had no idea of what place was going to be like i want my son back sometimes that [Music] and she's travelled seeking a father she's never known i've always imagined meeting my dad her mother fond memories of him i heard her name was emiko and she looks very japanese i think she'll be very cute what lengths will they go to find him i just prayed to my ancestors and were they looking in the right place families that are lost and found oh my god they're always unpredictable yes we could use all the help we can get yeah i guess so [Music] [Applause] hi i'm leanne blake i left my four-year-old boy peter with his dad 28 years ago in a place called nightcaps in southland and i've not seen him since i had no money my marriage ended i was forced to leave peter behind with his dad when i returned home to sydney i'm planning to come to new zealand to try and find him can you please help me [Music] time and distance can only create a deep sense of separation perhaps it's still possible to bring these two together head sugars knees and toes knees and toes and eyes and eating 48 year old leanne blake lives in sydney's western suburbs and works as a telemarketer leanne's been married three times and has had six children i've got four girls at home they're absolutely fabulous i spend a lot of time at my house i love being around me i love being with them we have lots of fun together and you know family is just absolutely everything in my life after 20 years of marriage and raising daughters gretel and stella husband andrew knows very well what leanne has achieved oh she's an awesome mum yeah yeah she's always there for her kids does everything for them she always puts everybody else first before herself but leanne's pain relates to her firstborn her son peter that she left behind in new zealand 28 years ago she does have enormous sound and share my word yes it's just a huge emotion that she goes through many times over andrew has always supported liam's search for her absent son oh i want her 100 to be able to find a reconnect with peter because in a heart that's it's a void that that really needs to be filled i'd never exclude him ever every christmas every birthday i just want to have a relationship with the person that he is now he's not a little boy anymore he's a grown man you know just to have all my family together with just you know just make life complete for me simple as that [Music] leanne met her first husband in sydney and soon after they moved along with baby peter to his hometown in southern new zealand the small coal mining town of nightcamps after happy beginnings in sydney the anne's time in nightcaps turned into a very bleak period of her life now almost three decades later she's returning to try to find her son peter remember the southland weather i certainly do so you're quite a youngster when you came here yeah 17 a bit of a culture shock coming here all the way from sydney and a young baby yes eight months old bringing him here i had no idea of what place was going to be like at all [Music] leanne's marriage fell apart while her 28 year old husband often went to the pub with friends 17 year old leanne underage isolated and with a young baby was left at home alone i couldn't handle it because i didn't have any friends i didn't have any family i didn't have anything here only my son and he was determined that i wasn't going to take my son with me you wanted to take peter with you yeah i did but he wouldn't allow me to take because i had nowhere to take him to that was the pressure it was a lot of pressure applied on me so i had to give up everything and i cried my eyes out because i had nowhere to go and then i found out that i was pregnant with my daughter and i just had nowhere to go she says her husband dumped her at a bus stop in invercargill [Music] pregnant with no money and without her son peter she had to thin for herself i found my own place at little place called winton so that was um where i had my baby and she was born but then something terrible what happened yeah well she she died at um five and a half weeks old it was very you know like it was a bit of a shocking time there when i lost her it was very heartbreaking for me and i lost it very badly when your baby died how did it affect your relationship with your ex-husband he'd already got a lawyer papers drawn up unbeknownst to me to sign over my son to him [Music] leanne in shock after the death of her baby natalie and struggling financially felt no option but to give custody of four-year-old peter to her ex-husband with no reason to stay in southland leanne packed her bags and headed home to sydney i felt empty when i left here absolutely nothing i didn't feel like anything emptiness just i feel gutted and ripped off you know i want my son back simple as that leanne returned just once to visit peter when he was about to turn five it was also the last time she visited the grave of her daughter natalie so there's no headstone just a white cross we're looking for yeah right lyanna's not sure if anyone's been here to visit the grave at the winton cemetery since that last visit 27 years ago [Music] cut this the terrible land she knows i think of her every single day would have been a stunning girl if she'd lived absolutely stunning red hair blue eyes olive skin when i'll leave you to say your last goodbye and i'll just wait for you down by the car okay [Music] i've left leanne to do some searching in southland my search for peter butler proves harder than i was expecting all my checks in new zealand reveal nothing so i try australia in the white pages there's nobody obvious but in another online search i strike gold a peter ross butler it may not be a current address but there is a phone number [Music] hello hello is that uh peter butler peter my name's david lomas and i'm calling you because someone's looking for you a woman called leanne blake she says she's your mother [Music] sydney telemarketer leanne blake was devastated when she had to leave her infant son behind in new zealand 28 years ago i've just tracked him down in australia peter my name's uh david lomas and i'm calling you because someone's looking for you a woman called leanne blake leanne she's been looking for you for quite a long time oh yeah um she says she's thought of you every day since the last time she saw you 27 um ago she would like to meet you um i'm a pretty firm person because i've been a pretty rough flock so i'm i don't i don't believe well leanne's done a video message for you um would you be happy to meet me so i could show you that um [Music] peter tells me he's a truck driver and that two years ago he moved to australia he has a young son but he lives back in new zealand with his ex-partner i'm quite curious to see how peter reacts to what i have to tell him and show him does he remember his mother and does he know why she left him all those years ago you ever can't reach out yeah that's me great thanks for meeting us here um i'm david i'm here hi um well your mum's looking forward you know do you know much about it not really about five years old i think last time i seen it yeah she wrote to you yeah yeah for about two or three years already do you have any idea why she left you well it's a bit unusual for a mother to actually leave the child behind my dad did um talk to me about some circumstances but um i'm not too sure how truthful they were because yeah me and him don't get along anymore so he found a woman when i was 14. she didn't like me very much so he decided that she was more important than me so he left me talk at 14. when did you depart home i was 14 and i just lived by myself and brought myself up there must be a hard childhood it was kind of hard like getting myself off to school and lighting a fire to keep warm and doing washing my hands but some pretty good next-door neighbors and pretty good community i love them so they looked after me did you know you had a little sister yeah my dad did tell me about that yeah i've been to a grave many times your mummy said she felt like after your sister died your dad sort of abandoned her she was the most railroaded out of town so would you like to see her and see what she has would you like to share and see what she has to say to you yeah why not have a look and if you hit that play button hi peter um it's your mum here leanne i've come all the way from australia to come and find you i'm hoping that we can meet i've really missed you you've never left my heart and always love you i've got four beautiful daughters which are your sisters that are dying to meet you i hope that we can catch up and see each other you've never left me ever [Music] oh yeah so that's your mum yeah that's cool do you remember her not really don't remember how would you like to meet her [Music] dear one why not you only live once so any anxiety [Music] oh yeah i've been a bit nervous it's been a long time a lot of friends with my family apart from my son so [Music] crazy [Music] it's not surprising that peter's protective shell seems closed after becoming disconnected from his mother and later his father and having separated from his partner he's wary of relationships of any kind i always um got open arms for good people in my life people that i can trust and people are going to depend on it's the people that i can't trust i won't have anything to do with those sort of people so for the moment it's enough that he's agreed to meet his mum [Music] it's time to check in with leanne having done some of her own searching around nightcaps she's waiting for me in in the cargo so had any luck trying to find peter at all no i haven't none at all i talked to a few people out at nightcaps and they haven't heard of him at all but just other family members that's about it well i've had a little bit of luck i actually went to australia and i met a chap and his name's peter wow he's your son [Music] is this pharrell yeah and he'd like to meet you oh my god this is for real is this real oh my god so he can meet you and your girls and your husband fantastic this is awesome this is awesome i want to scream i want to shout i want to jump you know so how do you think your girls and your husband they're going to hit the roof they're just going to jump for joy they're going to be just so happy you know because they they know how i feel about all this and they've always wanted a brother so how awesome is that [Music] for peter being a brother to siblings is something totally foreign to him i'm not an emotional person because i'm so hardened that's just my problem like most people would be going on about stuff but yeah it's challenging the defenses he has built around himself since his mother and father disappeared from his life way back in nightcaps leanne came to new zealand to search for her son but now ironically she's flying home to meet him in australia where he now lives she last saw peter when he was just five years old well your family is just about to explode in numbers you're going to get four sisters and a mum how do you feel about that yeah it's going to be pretty crazy um i don't know let's see what happens i suppose bring it on your two youngest sisters are nine and thirteen they reckon they're gonna run up and give you a great big hug okay wow that's cool yeah look forward to it after 28 years of wandering and worrying leanne is waiting down by the water's edge you're just about to meet your son how are you feeling excited nervous but shaky butterflies all the emotions it's just you won't know this but peter's had one heck of a knife [Music] sydney brother leanne blake was forced to leave behind her firstborn in nightcaps southern new zealand you're just about to meet your son how are you feeling um but shaky butterflies all the emotions it's just [Music] you won't know this but peter's had one heck of a knife when he was 14 his his dad basically left him left him alone back in nightcaps and he moved to christchurch [Music] and peter fed for himself chopped his own firewood did his own washing oh had to buy his own food 40 a week so for quite a few years he actually had no family if you were to walk over there and long there and see up on that ledge up there a guy in the blue and white stripes [Music] he's up there waiting and he would love to see you i can't wait good luck thank you thanks for everything i was a bundle of nerves i didn't know you know what the reaction was going to be or you know just just felt butterflies and yeah 28 years he's my only boy only one and he's my first son he's my firstborn [Music] hi hello [Music] okay [Music] well thank you so much for coming i wanted to come [Music] [Music] i could feel like the strengths from him cuddling into me it was great it was awesome [Music] i was pretty nervous but at the same time wanting to to actually meet it was good very emotional especially for my mum [Music] okay stella i'd like to meet you [Music] there you go [Laughter] nice to meet you how old are you name nine spring chicken this is uh victoria victoria how are you how are you wonderful ah surreal it's just a whole new family that i never knew existed this is my husband andrew get out mate right not too bad it's undescribable really or makes me feel good you know it's the closest people you're going to have to it's a family yes you never thought of that it's the best day ever you know i've waited for this day for 28 years i can't describe it in words because you know bringing my son and i together like this is just brilliant how much hurt and how much sadness [Music] year after year after year after a late night of catching up peter is in a whole new world of family and togetherness see that boat's got like a front at this end in the front of there you see that big ferry i could see millions of people on it you have a look peter i'm just so over the moon i just can't believe it they just love him already i just think it's wonderful run you over just feel welcome and happy and these people are people definitely yeah they'll be in my life forever now it's been probably one of the best experiences of my life sure and his son are now part of leanne's family i just feel like everything's in completion everything feels right we just feel united as a family and it's how it should have always been [Applause] hello my name is emiko i'm looking for my father toshihiko newa 20 years ago my mom came to japan to teach english and she got pregnant and then went back to new zealand i'm here now in japan learning about my japanese culture and also with hopes to find my father who i've never met before it's hard when you've never met your dad and he comes from a culture different from the one you've grown up with student emma kaushin is in japan trying to find the dad she's never met she and partner ari nuttal are on a gap year emmakor only knows her father's name toshihiko niwa her years of searching online especially since she's been in japan have failed to find him before going to japan i need to talk to emmacore's mother ariana sheehan ariana lives in hamilton where she lectures in maori studies she has fond memories of emmacore's father who she went out with when she was in japan in the early 1990s toshihiko was a fun-loving young man and he enjoyed playing baseball yeah he was a lovely a lovely man how did you end up being separated i told toshihiko i was pregnant with emiko and um he actually freaked out a little bit i wanted to come home to new zealand did you keep in contact we kept in contact for about a year after emiko was born he wrote letters i wrote some letters back to him sending photos of him this is the letter i got first from toshihiko he wrote last night i heard that you had a baby girl i heard her name was emmy cor and she looks very japanese i think she'll be very cute please tell me what i can do to help i would like to see emmy cool and meet her i do not forget you and here is a t-shirt for amico i hope it fits here himiko means blessed merciful beautiful child and he's she's a she's a blessing to me and she's a beautiful young woman how do you think toshihiko will react to knowing that emmacore's looking for him i have been a little bit nervous about that in the past when i was in kyoto toshihiko wasn't really keen on me meeting his family i think that was because i wasn't japanese so i suppose i've been a bit concerned about how his family may react to him having a 21 year old daughter finding toshihiko niwa while i'm in new zealand is probably not going to be easy i decide to head for japan to the city of matsumoto matsumoto is in the mountainous nagano region where the 1998 winter olympics were held emacor is working here on a farm after talking to her mother i know emmacore was raised in a big family with younger brothers and sisters and even though her stepfather penny treated her as a daughter emmacore always felt a bit different because she knew her biological father was a mysterious japanese man early on i wasn't very curious about him i kind of just knew that he was the story that i'd heard i've always had photos of him so visually i've been able to see him in my head when i was becoming a teenager i started to become more curious about him and who he was and where he was how important is finding your dad for you [Music] i've just met with 21 year old student emma kaushien in japan she's here looking for her japanese birth father toshihiko niwa whom she's never met when i was becoming a teenager i started to become more curious about him and who he was and where he was how important is finding your dad for you i've kind of i've always imagined meeting my dad but i think it'll be a completely different thing when it happens i don't know i've got no idea what my reaction will be [Music] growing up was it ever a problem being part japanese obviously i look a bit japanese as soon as i meet people you know my name is emiko so they always wonder um you know where that name's from where i'm from you've come to japan why i'm here to to learn about my culture and to learn about the japanese people and their way of life maybe by the time i leave i'll be able to call myself japanese and feel feel good about it emiko has known her boyfriend ari nuttall since they were seven years old but it wasn't until they were in their late teens that they started a relationship he's now very much involved in the compulsive search for her dad finding her father always seemed like something which is a total long shot um it seemed like like an impossibility it's pretty crazy to think that an ancient fortress just turns into a tourist place like that huh yeah emmacore's quest to understand her japanese side has led her to embrace aspects of shinto ancinto is a kind of ancestor worship and nature worship religion when you arrive you you go over to the washing area and wash your hands make sure that you're clean cleanliness is one of the four virtues of the shinto religion you're gonna say a prayer for your dad yeah i guess so i guess we could use all the hell we can get huh do you think you don't want to be cheap these are gods [Music] i just prayed to my ancestors with help for finding my father i need all the help i can get [Music] i begin searching for a phone number for toshihiko niwa and an extraordinary thing happens google leads me straight to a toshihiko newa living near seattle in the usa seattle is where 20 years ago in a letter to emmacore's mother ariana toshihiko mentioned his new girlfriend lived oh hello is that toshihiko niwa the toshihiko who answers confirms he once went out with ariana and he agrees to meet me i leave amakur and ahri in matsumoto they believe i'm off to another part of japan in search of toshihiko but what they don't know is that the toshihiko i've found lives in seattle on the west coast of america [Music] this toshihiko hasn't yet confirmed that he's emmacore's father but he's agreed to meet me on the outskirts of seattle at the starbucks near his home in woodenville [Music] the question is will toshihiko an american citizen for nearly 20 years except a 21 year old kiwi daughter into his life yatoshi hi i'm david nice to meet you grab a seat so your daughter's looking for you have you thought about her over over the years i was always thinking about her wrong time here why did you and emmacore never sort of keep in contact well i was thinking uh i was thinking about like maybe i can keep in touch but i kind of hate it because because i don't know what she's thinking about me you know you weren't sure what she thought about you i mean me and this are both young yeah yeah so i couldn't do anything and then plus i was so complicated my life because i met the american lady i had to talk to my parents and when i rang you and said that she was looking for you how did how did you feel about that i was uh nice and shocked kind of surprised me yeah oh i'm so kind of a kind of happy you know yeah because i want to i can't try to content contact but as kind of i didn't know i'm not sure if they are okay or not emma call has done a a video message which you would like me to show you so if you were to just to push that button [Music] [Music] [Music] this she was very keen to do it in japanese so that it would impress you she went to japan to to try and find you to learn a little bit about her her japanese culture and to to learn the language this is perfect yeah yeah she knows a lot of us now would you be happy to meet her i'd like to see and her mum could come too that's right yeah good and the boyfriend the boyfriend yeah all together two years after ariana returned to new zealand to give birth to amacor toshihiko met and married his american wife sarah they have a 15 month old daughter toshi exports fresh american produce to japan sarah who's encouraged her husband to find emmacore is an occupational therapist [Music] returning to japan i have good news for emmacore i'm curious to see how she'll react when i tell her that the father she went to japan to find does not live here cicadas they sound like an army of weed eaters don't they they're relentless last time i talked to you we were at a shinto temple and you said a prayer do you remember what you prayed for i was praying owen hopes to find my family and it'll all work out really well well i've spoken to you dad toshi hiko what really [Music] twenty-one-year-old student emma corsio is about to find out that i've found her japanese birth father but she and her boyfriend ari have no idea where i found him well i've spoken to your dad what really and he'd really love to meet you oh man there's a catch though he doesn't actually live here in japan oh really holy moly in the wrong country he's in the united states in seattle oh my gosh wow that's a lot all at once yeah yeah wow [Music] oh [Music] so would you would you like to go to seattle to meet your dad really wow [Music] that's a crazy opportunity huh yeah that's insane i would love to go of course [Music] two weeks later emmacore and ari along with ariana and her son t rookie are in seattle see those beautiful flowers up there they're cool for all of them this is their first time in america [Applause] family in new zealand have chipped in to make sure ariana could be here i just love my baby i love my girl and i wanted to be here to support her i couldn't let her go through this experience on her own without her whanau [Music] and this place is so big after japan huh would you look at that gonna grab that japanese hot dog [Music] [Applause] the next day the moment emacor has been waiting for has finally arrived just over there on by the beach there's a slightly older toshi would you like to take your daughter down to meet her dad yes yeah i all would good luck thank you i feel excited to talk to him and to figure out who he is and learn about him and meet his family i don't think if i just walked past him that i would recognize him i knew kind of one day we're gonna see each other now i'm so happy oh baby this will dead yeah no that's weird [Music] sorry [Music] see you baby i know she was nervous i could see you twisting your hands behind your back wow oh my god but finally gets to see him i felt proud of him that he came to meet his daughter oh my god [Music] wow [Music] so thank you for coming thank you for coming i was overwhelmed that's just great seeing toshihiko talking to emiko and meeting the rest of my family ari and taraki he still looks the same guy he was the same i'd recognize him if i met him in the street well i've kind of hesitated to connect contact you because i don't know what you're thinking about me so i'm happy you're doing this when we hug it was kind of strange but it was also quite satisfying i haven't seen nothing [Music] it's good on paper right yeah yeah good on you mum what a woman [Laughter] come over guys oh my goodness [Music] lovely to see you thank you so much for coming long time yeah this is my boyfriend nice to meet you nice to meet you this is my son hi nicole's brother this is a letter yes yeah toshi has never stopped thinking about the daughter he had never met so lovely you kept that letters and photos that were sent to him by ariana have been treasured but it's taken two decades for him to get the maori translation of emmakur's name so this is emi i wrote that okay and means treasure of the day and waitabi means sacred water this is maori oh cool emma cool's two families are united toshi introduces her and ariana to his wife sarah and their baby toshiko is really he's really great he's a really nice guy i was quite nervous the last couple weeks and the few days that we were here before we met him pretty soon actually summer is coming but then yeah i can relax now because that's so that's so lovely it feels like a weight's been lifted off my shoulders or something after spending a week with her dad emmacore and ari returned to japan toshi finally has told his parents about emmacore and they are keen to meet her toshi will do the introduction the next time he's in japan erica had a birthday just recently and he gave her a gift for her birthday um in the card he wrote how he was sorry that he'd missed all those previous years but now they've got time to create new memories and brought a tear to my eye he's a really great guy and i'm so excited to get to know him more [Music] next week on lost and found that was a bit of a profound moment i actually told him that i was a half brother what became of his father the shepherd i said well i don't know any secrets to you does she know enough to find her birthday and will he want her back it's quite weird because he's my dad [Music] supporting local content so you can see more of new zealand on air

Channel: Only Human

Views: 264,728

Keywords: Discovering cultural roots, Emotional life journeys, Family members reunion, Family secrets uncovered, Father-daughter reunion, Heartfelt life stories, Heartwarming family reunion, Human experiences series, Life journeys TV show, Lost and found son, Mother's search journey, Only Human, Personal connections explored, Personal heritage discovery, Personal identity quest, Personal identity search, Real life family reunions, Sydney mother search, Touching family reunions

Id: fLlMWOeTcEU

Length: 44min 24sec (2664 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 11 2022