Four orphans find their mother

Four orphans, abandoned in different locations over 14 years, who came together by chance have finally located their mother.

Steve, Julie, Gary and Kim grew up with completely different lives, unaware each other existed, after being abandoned as babies.

Incredibly, they found each other in a series of chance encounters and together began searching for their mother, Valerie Isla Mirams.

Since Sunday Night aired their story the siblings have been inundated with information and located their mother, finally.

"As a result of the show… it’s been discovered that our mother had a name and she was known as Christine Isla Ryan."

"But Christine Isla Ryan passed away on the 4th of May 2012."

The four travelled to Brisbane to the last address listed on the electoral rolls have for Christine Isla Ryan.

There they found a wealth of information about their mum.

"She was the most lovable lady you could ever meet," Bob, a local who knew her said.

"She was, she was bloody beautiful."

The oldest of the four, Steve was left on December, 23, 1949, in the Civic cinema in George St, Sydney. Valerie would have been 19 and left no trace except for a partial name tag.

"Valerie, or Mum I can say now, is just not a name … I know her identity I know where she went know where she walked know where she lived," Steve said.

Julie was discovered on April 22, 1956, at the Salvation Army hotel in Pitt St, Sydney. For this abandonment Valerie was arrested and charged but no record of any conviction was found and Julie was adopted by a loving family.

The two younger siblings, Gary and Kim were left together at their home in St Kilda, Melbourne, in 1963. Their mother left a note saying she 'couldn’t cope' and vanished.

"It’s amazing, it’s amazing, amazing we found her I truly can’t believe it. Thirty five years of looking and in one week… wow! There she is" Kim said.

A former police detective, Julie began looking for answers on online adoption sites in 2000. Six years later, she got a reply from Gary and Kim and soon after a DNA test proved they were siblings.
Lost and found: Part one

But incredibly, in May 2014, there was another discovery. Julie found a newspaper article in Sydney's Sun Herald about Steve Hardie's search for his mother and the overwhelming similarities in their stories led her to make contact.

"It was like I was reading the newspaper article written about me all those years ago. You know that he’d abandoned one street back in George St from where I was abandoned," Julie said.

"I said, “he could be my brother and I know who his mother is'."

Steve had been seeking answers through an adoption advisor because he still had no record of birth and discovered he had been abandoned in the movie theatre.
"For me it was an ongoing thought that there could possibly be someone out there, still alive, that had lived a lifetime wondering what happened to a child that she left in a picture theatre," Steve's wife Monica said.

"I certainly didn’t expect a sibling to come forward at all. It’s hard to conceive that someone has abandoned a child. But you couldn’t imagine that someone would have done it again."

The reporter who wrote his story relayed the call from Julie to Steve, but was dubious.

"We got a phone call from the reporter and she said, “I think we have got some crackpots on the phone, they think they are your siblings"." Steve said.

Julie had another DNA test done after speaking with Steve, which proved that he too was one of Valerie's abandoned children.

"We have got 60 years to catch up on. That’s a lot of birthday presents," Steve said.

If you, too, are searching for your family after adoption, visit:www.jigsaw.org.au