How Dying Mum Was Cared For By Daughter She Gave Up Without Knowing

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A nurse who was given up for adoption at 8 months has shared how she found and took care of her biological mum til she died without revealing who she was.

According to DailyMail, Phyllis Whitsell, now 59, was adopted from an orphanage at four by a Catholic family and told that her mum, Bridget Ryan, had died of tuberculosis. She said her adoptive parents told her not to reveal she was adopted which made her feel ashamed but believed that her mother could be alive and she made the decision to search for her when she was much older.

After she had become a trained nurse, got married and started a family of her own, she decided the time was ripe for her to start searching for her mum.

Before starting the search, Whitsell attended counselling sessions with a social worker to prepare her for whatever the outcome will be. With that done, the next step she took was to visit the orphanage where she was given up for adoption which proved to be a dead end. Not deterred, Mrs Whitsell approached probation officers and social workers and was fortunate to find her mother through their help.

When she met her mother, she was in a complete mess. Mrs Ryan had lived a life which was nothing to be proud of; she was in complete disarray and had become an alcoholic.

Mrs Whitsell said:

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‘Although my heart went out to the damaged woman who turned out to be my mother, I knew I could never allow her to disrupt my own family nor could I turn my back on her. She wasn’t the fairy tale figure I had imagined, but she was still my mother.

By then I was a district nurse. So I just unofficially added her to my rounds. I took her clean clothes, bathed her wounds and got her to talk about the five children she had given away, including me. The day she spoke affectionately of “little Phyllis” and told me my birth date accurately was the best, and the worst, day of my life.’

Mrs Whitsell never left her mother’s side and took care of her for years before she died at the age of 74 but at no time did she reveal she was that daughter she gave up several years ago.