Sophomore Hannah Gale cradled her father, Jerry Gale, in the airport after coming to the United States at a year old. Gale was left in a farmer’s market by her biological mother in Hubei, China. She was then taken to an orphanage and on her first birthday she was adopted by Jerry and Barbara Gale. Photo provided by Hannah Gale.
By HANNAH GALE – Writing Coach
Fourteen years after her adoption, 16-year-old Hannah Gale addresses her birth mother in an open letter.
Dear “mom,”
I was told that you left me in a farmer’s market.
Was it the same one you regularly went to?
Did you trust the people there?
Is that why you abandoned me there?
Because the people were friendly,
or didn’t seem like they would hurt a newborn?
Luckily you were right.
I was found,
by a cop.
Taken to an orphanage,
then adopted a year later.
But what if fifteen years later, I was still deserted in that farmer’s market?
With no one to love me.
With no one to care for me.
Living alone, homeless.
People ask if I ever want to find you.
I don’t.
I don’t like you.
I don’t ever want to see you.
Why should I, when you didn’t want me?
You didn’t even take the time to name me.
The orphanage did:
Churui.
It’s now my middle name.
I legally carry around a piece of the orphanage everywhere I go.
I biologically carry around parts of you everywhere I go.
I separated myself from Churui in hopes of separating myself from my past.
Instead, it brought me more grief.
But I emotionally dumped you and the orphanage down the drain
the moment I realized it was abandonment.
I could still be sitting in that farmer’s market.
Please don’t ever look for me.
You betrayed me.
Even 15 years later, you’re still betraying me over and over again.
I turned out like this because of you.
I have held a grudge for fifteen years because of you.
What a great way to start off life.
Sincerely,
your “daughter”
