This is a highly emotional story about family abandonment, passed down the generations – but it is also the story of Ronald Phelvin’s journey to make peace with his past.
Shortly after he was born, Ron’s mother Catherine abandoned him. By the age of seven months, little Ronald was put into a children’s home. At two he was adopted.
Twenty years ago, married and subsequently with a family of his own, Ron tried to trace his birth mother – but was devastated to discover that she had died when he was a teenager.
Then suddenly a conversation with his Aunt Rose over a cup of tea, opened a door on a family mystery...Ron discovered that he has a brother.
With the help of programme maker Emma Parkins, Ron goes on a journey in search of relatives he never knew he had….but also in search of understanding and compassion for his mother, who herself suffered abandonment at the hands of her family.
First broadcast: Wednesday 11 Jan 2006 on BBC FOUR
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