By Leon Gray-Lockhart
DAVID Gaston's early life was one peppered with loneliness and heartache, but many twists and turns and a recent trip to New Zealand have brought him both comfort and closure.
For a long time, all that David knew for sure was that he was born in 1938 in New Zealand and was adopted out as a baby by a couple who lived in Hamilton.
"My adoptive mother and father had emigrated from Britain to New Zealand," said David, "I stayed in Hamilton for four years and I remember living at a house there and taking a trip to Rotorua. I also remember being chased off a bowling green, and going to hospital with my mother."
David also remembers the day his adoptive mother received the telegram telling them that his adoptive father had been killed in action in Crete.
Feeling far from home, his adoptive mother chose to return to Britain after her husband's death and David had always believed she did that solely to be nearer her own family.
"It wasn't until later that I found out that she had terminal cancer, and she wanted to be near her family when she died. Now I know that her visits to the hospital in Hamilton were related to her illness letters written by my adoptive mother to her mother told me that."
After 10 weeks on a boat, and eight days back in Britain, David's adoptive mother died at Fencehouses in County Durham, leaving David to be raised by the sister-in-law of his adoptive mother's mother.
"I spent my childhood not really feeling abandoned, but not feeling quite a part of my family. Everybody I grew up with was perfectly nice, but I always felt the same."
David lived in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire until he was 16, when he went to Peterborough to study engineering. He eventually made the town his home, forging a career there and marrying his wife, Janet. Together they had three children.
For many years, as far as David knew, that was his entire early life history, but an interesting twist of fate and a chance meeting were soon to challenge all that he knew about himself.
"Our friends, Mary and Keith, were coming out to New Zealand, and I asked them if they would be passing anywhere near Hamilton. They said they would be and I asked them to see if they could find anything out about my family."
Mary and Keith came to New Zealand, and eventually made their way to a library in Hamilton where they started chatting with a woman there.
"They had trouble with the microfiche machine, and this woman offered to help. As they talked, the woman offered to do some research for them just to be helpful."
David was put in contact with the woman and eventually found out that he hadn't been adopted from birth, but at two-and-a-half years old.
"That was a surprise my birth mother had given me up after raising me for two-and-a-half years."
The woman also revealed that David had a half-brother called Edward Peter Basher who was still alive in Napier the two had the same birth mother, but different fathers.
David was delighted to find this out and instructed his son Kevin to meet up with Edward (who preferred to be called Peter) when he came for a holiday to New Zealand in late 2007.
"Our son Kevin went to see Peter in Napier and found out that in fact, Peter had two other brothers Don who lived in Taumaranui and Fred who had lived in Eltham from 1990 until his death in 1996."
"Over the years, I had thought about coming out to New Zealand for a holiday," said David, "but I wasn't sure if I wanted to make contact with my birth family or if they wanted to get to know me."
Because Kevin had made contact with David's half-brothers and was encouraged by how they wished to stay in touch, in September of last year David and Janet started making serious plans to get to New Zealand, arriving in January of this year.
"Once we set foot here, I just felt at home. I met up with both Don and Peter and they told me anything and everything they could about my birth mother, Grace Alice Basher, as well as all about their lives. It was very emotional."
David found out that when he was two-and-a-half, his birth mother Grace was raising him and his brothers on her own, and finding it difficult as a single woman in the 1940s.
"They told me that they came home one day, asked where I was and was told that I was gone nothing else was said about it. All my toys and things were gone."
Later, Don was fostered out to an aunt, leaving Grace with Peter, who was disabled, and Fred, who left school and worked with his mother in a laundry business.
While in New Zealand, David was put in touch with the widow of Fred, Cath Basher, who still lived in Eltham and she was able to fill David in on the later life of Grace.
"Fred and I were married in 1982 and moved to Eltham from Napier in 1990 to be nearer our son, Ross, and his children," said Cath, "Fred's mum still lived in Napier."
"She was put in a rest home in Taradale, but eventually ended up living in Eventide Home, now Mercy Jenkins in Eltham."
Grace died in 1994, and Fred died in 1996 both have been buried at the Eltham Cemetery.
"I paid my respects and put some flowers on her grave," said David, "I didn't really know her, but had I known all this 15-20 years ago, I think I would have made contact with her."
For David, the whole journey has been a roller coaster, but he now certainly feels a great sense of closure.
"We're definitely all going to stay in contact," said David.
Global genealogical journey
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