Jason Hewlett and his biological mother Barbara Chamberlain reuniting in Kamloops.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Jason Hewlett
September 15, 2021 - 7:30 AM
A Kamloops man has been reunited with his birth mom, almost fifty years after he was adopted as a baby in Vancouver, B.C. in 1972.
For Jason Hewlett, the reunion has sparked a journey of his own self-discovery.
Hewlett met his biological mother, Barbara Chamberlain from Victoria, B.C. in person for the first time yesterday at his home in Kamloops. He described it as a comfortable process yet one loaded with many emotions happening at the same time.
“I can’t explain how it is in my head, it is hard to put into words," he said. "It felt like I had always known her. After the first hugs and tears, we got to talking and laughing right away."
The pair spent the day flipping through family photos and learning about each other’s histories and backgrounds.
“For her there was lot more of an emotional load,” Hewlett said. “I am her first child and she only saw me very briefly just after I was born before I was taken away. She didn’t get to have me growing up or know what my life was like.”
Hewlett said he reached out to his biological mother earlier this year after his parents passed away and he found his biological mother’s information among his late mother’s things. He went through the Adoption B.C. process of filling out paperwork, supplying identification and paying a fee. After a system search, mom Barbara Chamberlain was found.
“I’ve been interested in finding my biological family for my whole life,” he said. “I just realized I was getting older and it needed to be done. Because she had put herself on the record with Adoption B.C. I was able to find her quite quickly and easily.”
A week of emailing back and forth broke the ice between the two and then arrangements were made to meet. Hewlett said the experience is something he would recommend other adoptees pursue.
“Up until now I had so many unanswered questions,” he said. “There is a whole nature vs nurture thing to discover and now all the pieces that didn’t quite fit make sense. I had a very happy childhood with a solid family. They were into construction and that never interested me. I'm finding out I have biological relatives that are interested in the same things I am."
Hewlett is next going to Vernon to meet more of his biological family members, to share more stories and to discover the answers to more unanswered questions.
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