Grief, Shame but Not Guilt

Re ‘Unfit Mother’ Speaks Up, June

The true horror is that society and good church-people didn’t want to accept us unless we presented ourselves as what they found acceptable, without child.

I don’t have guilt –it is society and the good church-going people who should have guilt for not supporting us. I have shame –because that is what a good church-going social worker placed on me. She was a founding member of an Anglican Church and Stephen Ministries councilor. I have grief because I lost my children to adoption. We were not supported and social workers and churches aided and abetted in the crime of separating us from our children.

“Don’t you want the best for your child?” we were asked.
“Well that’s two parents.”
I said no. Instead I was told, “No, you can’t keep your children –they will be called bastards.”
Isn’t that wrong? Why didn’t they know it was wrong 40 years ago?