Heartbroken ... Michael Sheard with documents which helped him find Nora

 STARING at his mother’s notebook after her death, Michael Sheard felt his stomach lurch.

There, a poignant message from beyond the grave answered the question that had occupied his thoughts for most of his life.

His mother Nora had written: “I’ve been looking for my children. I regret giving them away and moving around my entire life. I’ve been looking for them ever since.”

Michael was put into foster care as a baby, along with his younger brother David, when his emotionally troubled mum could not cope. He spent his adult years desperately searching for his mum.

But in a bitter blow, just a few hours after he located her, and before he could visit, Nora died.

Michael says: “I had been on such a high at finally finding her. To go from that to hearing this bad news was devastating.

“I could hardly believe that, after looking for her for all those years, she had died on the very day I’d found her without even knowing that I had found her at all.”

Michael, 53, who lives in Brighton and runs his own cleaning firm, was placed in foster care at around one year old. He was later joined by his brother David, now 48.

Stone's throw ... Nora photographed on Brighton beach just minutes away from Michael's house - John Connor Press Associates Ltd

Aged nine Michael was sent to live in a children’s home in Brighton while David stayed with the foster parents they called Mum and Dad.

Michael says: “It was a very confusing and upsetting time. It was only then that I began to understand my past.

“A welfare officer told me my foster parents hadn’t been my real parents and my mother was a lady called Nora Sheard.

“I was only told that she had led a fairly troubled life and hadn’t been able to cope. That was the first time I understood I didn’t come from a normal family.

“I was 12 when I said to staff at the children’s home that I wanted to find my mum.”

Luck

The search began in ernest when he was 19. In the process he discovered a sister, Annette, who had also been put into care. Now 55, Annette had gone on to live with her aunt Aida — Nora’s sister — in Birmingham. But there was still no sign of Nora.

Michael says: “Discovering I had an older sister and cousins was wonderful. I started travelling up for holidays and we have stayed in touch ever since.

“But even my aunt couldn’t shed any light on where Nora had gone, she had vanished. All I know about my father is that my brother and I have the same dad.

“On our birth certificates, it says ‘father unknown’. My sister has a different dad.”

Every few years Michael would attempt to find his mum, but each time he would hit a brick wall.

He says: “The problem was then that there were few electronic records.

“I later understood that because she never married, her name didn’t pop up on any official registers. There really seemed to be no way of finding her.”


Schoolboy ... Michael aged 12 - John Connor Press Associates Ltd

In 2008 Michael married his wife Tita, 46, a housekeeper.

By then he was feeling increasingly aware that if his mother were still alive she would be getting elderly. He resolved once again to find her.

His luck changed when his friend Kelly Mulligan volunteered to help.

He says: “Kelly knew how much despair I felt over my mum and told me to leave it with her.

“She went to the British library in London and made use of all the official records that are now online, websites that I wouldn’t even know how to use.

“It took her just a few weeks to narrow it down to two possible Nora Sheards. Through researching family trees she discovered one had a sister called Aida.

“It was my mum. She found out she was living in a retirement home near Victoria station in London.”

This year on the afternoon of Friday, September 3, Kelly called the care home and checked Nora was still there.

Incredibly, the staff immediately said that Nora had often talked about the three children she had given away and that she had asked for help to find them.

Overwhelmed, Michael immediately called the home.

He explains: “They said my mum was in hospital with pneumonia, but wasn’t seriously unwell. I was desperate to jump in the car and visit straight away. But when they said Nora was in hospital we decided it would be better I wait until she was back in familiar surroundings.

“I knew she was elderly and that meeting me would be very emotional. The nurses and I decided it would be better if they broke the news to her first and gave her a day to adjust before we actually met.

“The staff all said Nora would be thrilled.

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“I was imagining what it would be like when we met. I wondered if we would hug and what she would say.

“I didn’t have any hard feelings. I just wanted to meet her.”

Then, just seven hours later, Michael’s telephone rang. It was the manager of the home, telling him that his mother had suddenly passed away. She was 83. Michael says: “I burst into tears. I phoned my cousins and Kelly, they were in tears too.

“It was unbelievable. I had been robbed of the chance of finally meeting my mum.”

Michael went to the home, where he discovered the notes that would give him some comfort.

He says: “The first thing a nurse said to me when I walked in was, ‘Don’t you look like your mum.’ It was nice to hear, but made me feel very emotional too.

“I was then given a box of all her stuff. There were a few photos and these notes, in which she had written about how much she regretted giving up her three children.

“Reading about her regrets was a huge relief. I’d spent my whole life fearing she had forgotten about me. It helps that, thanks to her notes, I know the answer to the most important question I had — whether she had ever thought about us too.

Sad

“But I have to accept that her life will now forever remain a mystery and I’ll never know why my mother gave us up or what happened to her aftewards.”

Incredibly, Michael also realised he could have passed his mother in his home town without even knowing it. He says: “There was a photo of her on Brighton beach which is just minutes walk from where I live, taken a couple of years earlier.

“It broke my heart to think we had been so close yet hadn’t known the other was there. I could have walked past my own mother without realising it.”

He adds: “I learned she had turned up at the home six years earlier with hardly any possessions. No one had ever visited her, which is very sad. Though I think she had been happy there as there were photos of her dancing with the other residents.

“But no one knew anything about her past or the life she led since giving up her children.”

Due to various complications with paperwork, Michael is still awaiting his mother’s funeral. He plans to help organise it and be there on the day to say goodbye to the woman he never met.

He says: “In many ways my mother has influenced me throughout my life. I was always very nomadic and married late. Perhaps things would have been different if I’d come from a more normal background.

“I still feel very upset about what happened and wish I’d had a chance to meet Nora. I’ll have unanswered questions for the rest of my life.

“But I just have to remind myself that at least I know the answer to the most important question of all — she hadn’t forgotten about us.

“That knowledge will bring me a great deal of comfort.”

By KATE JACKSON

Source: thesun.co.uk