This is a picture of me, taken about 1978, when I first arrived in Canada. This is my story.
Around the age of four I was sleeping and during the night I remember a woman picking me up and running with me. She ran through a garden with me and I remember the smell of pepper plants and other vegetables as she ran with me through the night. This woman travelled mostly with me at night except in areas were there were no people or if it was a big city then it would be day time.
I do not know which part of India I actually came from just that she travelled a long way with me. I remember going through a very dry and desert area and then we would arrive at small villages as well as cities through our travels.
I knew that this woman was not my mother; I really did not like her and yet I had to depend on her for my very survival. This was in the very early 1970s. I am figuring because I was brought to Holy Angels Convent in Trivandrum in 1974. The woman that stole me had very dark almost black skin and greying hair with prominent teeth. I have none of those similarities.
I do remember having an older brother; during our travels she told me that my older brother had been murdered by a group of men when he went to have a meeting with them and she told me that my uncle had hung himself. I do not know if any of this was true. They could both be alive and she was probably lying to me.
I remember travelling with her by bus at times as well as being rowed across a river on a boat. There seemed to be a lot of turmoil going on in India during this time because I remember a lot of people houses being burned down as well as people being killed and riots by groups of people. The terrain changed a lot in our travels from dry desert to lush rice fields.
The woman seemed to finally arrive at her destination with me. She took me into a large building and then into a very nice private office. In this office the woman met with a group of five or six wealthy very well dressed men all wearing white clothes with beards and mustaches. I sat on a chair a little away from the men and the woman as they talked. Sometimes there voices would rise and then they would look over and smile at me as to console me. In there conversation they were very angry with my father.
During the conversation the woman abruptly got up and grabbed me took off from the room and out of the building. I could tell that she was very upset and as she walked with me out the building we crossed a bridge. Just as we had crossed the bridge a messenger boy was sent after the woman and the boy told her that she had to bring me back to the men. The woman refused to do that and then she continued on her way with me. That evening we stayed at a woman's house and the two women seemed to know each other.
I remember having fish for supper that night and as it began to get dusk the two women went outside and built a fire and then sat a distance away from the fire to talk. I was close by the fire staring into it when I all of a sudden sensed something dreadful then I do not remember anything else.
The next thing I remember is that it is becoming morning and the woman that had stolen me was laying dead on a road with me there and the house that we had been staying at is no where in sight.
From records I have been told some passerby people seeing me sit by the woman's dead body called the police. I do remember a policeman showing up and then I was put into the care of a woman named Miriam Isidora. I realized when I looked at Miriam Isidora that she was the same woman whose house we had been at.
Miraim then took me to a convent in Nyatinkara, Kerala. I stayed at this convent for about two days and then one of the nuns took me by car a days drive away. I was taken to a woman's house where I stayed for about a month. This woman had a sari shop outside her house and one day I went out there and a customer saw me and started asking questions about me. I was moved right away from there and taken to another house. At this house I remember a little girl living there who I played with as well as her grandfather being there. I was probably there about a month as well when a person selling fish noticed me and enquired after me. I was moved right away back to the first house and Miriam came and picked me up right away. I was then taken by car to another place. This new place had walls around and there were two houses there. In one house lived a young couple and the other had an old couple living there. They were very kind to me and I lived there for about a year or a year and a half. I never saw anyone during this time except for these people that took care of me. When I looked over the wall I never saw anything except coconut trees.
Miriam Isidora then came and picked me up one day and then took me to another convent called Holy Angels Convent in Trivandrum, Kerala. I lived and went to school there until I was adopted into Canada in April 1978.
This is a picture of me at the Convent. I am wearing the red dancing dress.
A picture of me with other children at the Convent. Like me, they may not know their real name, their birthday, where they were born or where their parents are. While I was at the Convent, I was given the name Latha Mary Magdalene. I know that was not my real name but it was the name I had there. I do not know what my real name was.
I do have some markings on me that are all identical; they seemed to have been branded on me.
Someone who looked at it said that it looks like the marks were made with a hot ruby when I
was very young.
The two identical marks are on both the calves of my legs and the other one on
the middle of my forehead.
I am desperate to find my family and I really hope that someone out there knows
something that will solve this mystery.
Vanessa
After all she has endured, Vanessa added, "I do believe there is a God out there
because I've seen to much in my life not to believe that."
Click here to listen (MP3 file - Interview date - 14th September 2008) to her story in her own words, how she suffered from post traumatic stress disorder due to all the abuse she suffered in Canada after her adoption.
The song she requested at the conclusion of the interview is Ask Me by Amy Grant.
Vanessa's Story on YouTube.com Part I
Vanessa's Story on YouTube.com Part II
Vanessa is not the only child Missing From India
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