She Was Forced To Give Up Daughter, Then Fate Brought Them Back Together 24 Years Later
Not every story can have what we would consider a happy ending. The circumstances of some peoples’ tales simply preclude them from ending in smiles.
Sometimes, though, even the most tragic circumstances take a positive turn. That’s exactly what happened to Darcy Dee of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
According to the Toronto Star, Dee had been hit by a truck at the tender age of 8 while walking to school.
First responders initially said that she died at the scene, but they were wrong. Dee survived, albeit with significant brain damage.
It was nice to be back on the front page of The Toronto Star today, albeit with a bittersweet story that I called “the saddest of happy endings,” about Darcy Dee’s reunion with the daughter Veronica who was taken away from her in 1991. Honored to close the loop on this story. pic.twitter.com/9hBDxomaIP
— Allan Thompson (@ElectAllanT) January 28, 2019
The accident left its mark in Dee’s slurred speech and jerky motions, yet she maintained a fierce sense of independence.
She eventually moved out of her family’s home and lived by herself in an apartment in downtown Hamilton. She was also in a relationship that ended up leading to a pregnancy.
That was when the trouble started. While she was pregnant, Dee reached out to the children’s aid society, but after she gave birth, authorities said she wasn’t able to be a good parent.
Why? They said that her disability meant she couldn’t care for a child. “All my life people told me I couldn’t do anything,” Dee said in 1990.
“Well, now I did the thing that is supposed to be the most important of all. I created a life. Now they want to take that away from me.”
Dee was allowed restricted visitation rights during the first year of her daughter’s life.
But on Feb. 11, 1991, the little girl that Dee had named Veronica was taken out of her custody, put into the foster-care system and eventually adopted. Veronica wouldn’t see her for 24 years.
As one decade rolled into the next and into the next, Dee got more bad news: She was diagnosed with breast cancer and it was fatal.
But thanks to a court document that contained her daughter’s legal name, Dee’s family was able to find her daughter. Veronica was working mere blocks away from where her biological mother lived.
The two were able to reconnect on Jan. 25, 2015. They would meet many times after that up until Dee’s death on Jan. 20, 2019.
“Most of what happened between Darcy and I was over coffees and in each other’s hearts,” Veronica told the Toronto Star. “We couldn’t easily communicate but the wonder and surreal happiness of beating the odds together was our primary emotional story.”
“Knowing that my mother got her greatest wish, to heal the wound of losing me, has been a huge inspiration,” Veronica said.
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