Almost two months after the news of a woman who was abducted as an infant was found by police 20 years later shocked the country, the now adult woman is taking baby steps to bond with her newly found biological family.
Breaking her silence for the first time since her story broke, Mpho*, who lives in Carolina, Mpumalanga, spent her first Christmas with her new family – just a few weeks after police traced her and reunited her with her biological family.
Mpho said their reunion has led her to a journey of finding closure and acceptance of her new life and environment. She has also begun using her real name which was given to her by her grandmother soon after she was born on March 23 2001.
“I feel at peace and at ease. Things are slowly making sense and I’m taking it one day at a time to bond with my biological mom, grandmother and siblings,” she said in a brief interview with Sowetan this week.
“I turned out just fine. My story does not make me any less or more of a person. But life happens and although some things cannot be explained, I still feel blessed. I’m grateful to both my families,” added the engineering student.
Last month the country was shocked by the news that police had managed to trace her after two decades in what they had believed to be a cold case. Mpho was snatched from her mother 20 years ago at Ermelo Provincial Hospital by a woman who later raised her as her own.
However, in November, Mpho’s 16-year-old brother saw her picture on Facebook under “people you may know”.
The teenager showed the picture to his grandmother, saying the woman in the photo looks a lot like his mother and other relatives. The grandmother then took the image to her daughter, saying the person in it could be her long-lost daughter.
Police then traced Mpho to Carolina and the woman who had stolen her was arrested for child abduction and is currently out on bail. She is back in court next month.
Regarding the aftermath of her story in the media, Mpho said: “I was scared of the media and hid. My story touched so many people. It was overwhelming for me. I can’t say much except that I’m grateful for the miracle that my life has turned out to be.”
She didn’t want to speak about the family that raised her, which she has continued to live with. She said her new family had given her the warmest Christmas.
“It was very emotional to reunite because they thought I was dead while I was alive and being raised by another family which gave me a good life and put me through school and university.
“I never felt like I didn’t belong with them. I’m not going to dwell in the mess of the past but the great story is that God has decided to tell my story through the incidents that have led me here.”
Mpho’s emotional grandmother said she cried when her granddaughter responded to a name that she had given her before she was born.
“I’m crying because I called her by [her original] name deliberately hoping she’d finally use it because that’s how the ancestors know her. If God can bring back all the stolen joys in just one month, then we are very grateful to the police and God for delivering our Christmas gift right on time,” the grandmother said.
Mpho’s mother said she had learned to love her daughter in the few days they spent together.
“She looks, walks, talks and even laughs like me. I spent the Christmas day staring at her as she was sleeping. That’s all I needed,” said the 36-year-old mother.
*Not her real name
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