A single island in a sea of BILLIONS

I cannot imagine being a single island in a sea of billions. But to have
been connected to three other islands which are completely unavailable must
make for a lonely time. A single entity, unaware of its surroundings,
totally abandoned, fully alone, like a branch of a tree grafted into a
different tree, or a kidney from a heart attack victim -- someone who never
knows anything...

When it is a person, the analogy takes on a frightening and very sad
perspective. And to know that the courts and states set their own laws on a
topic such as adoption records makes things even more sad.

I have a case in point: My wife. She's approaching 60, and has never had a
chance to know her birth parents. Records sealed by Florida Statutes, she
is cut apart from her two biological parents.
We know very little about Trisha's biological family. But what we DO know
we hope to give us some leads, and yet....

What we know for sure: Patricia was born Noreen Lucille (I presume Lucille
was her middle name) was born in May of 1952, in West Palm Beach. Uncertain
as to hospital, they've undergone changes, hospitals have opened, closed,
changed locations. We don't know the attending physician. We know it was a
private adoption. One of her parents must have had blue eyes in the family,
somewhere. Maybe both her parents had blue eyes? Her hair turned dark over
the years, but we can suspect that brown hair is in the family.

Her father is believed to have been a musician, but this is unsubstantiated.

But Trisha's case is a little more unique: She had a child, herself. Never
even permitted to hold the child, but the child was signed over to Catholic
Charities in April of 1975. So, we know the agency performing the adoption,
date born 4-4-75. We know what her daughter's birthplace was, in Tampa, Fl.
(Women's Hospital).

Unfortunately, we know nothing else, and the records are sealed. To make
matters worse, many records that could have been used were destroyed in a
fire, so many things may never be determined.

It is that frustration -- that "Casting about, unrooted" feeling... A single
island in a sea of 6 Billion islands, knowing there are connections -- it
heightens the sense of loneliness.

This doesn't say Trish had no family. But it does say her right to know -- after 58 years... Ought to be acknowledged!