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JUNE 20, 2014
Jake Virtanen expected to be picked in first round of next week’s NHL draft A28
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65 years to find ‘Robby’ Jean Green reunites with the son she was compelled to give up in 1947
A MOVE FOR THE VOODOO A7 Iconic military jet now occupies location at Abbotsford airport terminal entrance
TRUSTEE PAY HIKE A6 Abbotsford school trustees vote to increase incoming boards’ pay
David Eggleston reunites with mom Jean Green. He was accompanied by his son, also named David. SUBMITTED
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he strapping man wearing the suit jacket and cowboy hat carried a bouquet of flowers as he stepped into the room and firmly embraced the petite woman in front of him. The two shed a few happy tears. He noticed the pictures of himself through the years that were displayed around the room. Something about that was surreal. Her first thought was, “I wish he had trimmed his moustache. I hate moustaches.” There they stood, mother and son, together for the first time in more than 65 years. Their bond was immediate. Jean McLeod was born in a small
er had died giving birth to Jean,
Saskatchewan town during the
and she was raised by her father,
Second World War to strict Scottish
who lived long enough to see her
Presbyterian parents. Her moth-
graduate from nursing school. Her
brothers had perished in the war. Jean was engaged to be married when she discovered she was pregnant. Her fiance, whom she later learned had a wife and children at the time they were together, gave her two choices – abort the baby or no wedding. With strong religious convictions, abortion was not an option for Jean. Single motherhood was not a viable alternative in those days, so that left adoption. Jean moved away to Calgary, Alta., where she stayed with a friend’s mother until the baby was born. She gave birth to a boy on Oct. 22, 1947. Common practice at that time, when a unwed woman was
relinquishing her child, was for the infant to be immediately whisked away and placed in an orphanage. Instead, Jean was mistakenly handed her bundled up baby, whom she instantly unwrapped to see if he was OK. Her heart ached as she held him over the next few hours, pushing aside thoughts of keeping him. She had no money, no job and nowhere to go. When she was given the opportunity to name him, she chose Donald for the boy’s father, Robert for poet Robby Burns, and McLeod for her family name. No day passed thereafter without Jean crying for her son or praying Continued on A4
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DRUG DEAL CRACKDOWN A7 Police move to stem rising number of drug transactions at local homeless camps
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