Tears of joy as Derry woman reunited with mother who gave her up, not once

A Derry woman has been reunited with her mother who gave her up as a child, not once – but twice.

Margo Kearney wept with joy as she met her mother for the first time in almost 50 years.

Seventy year old great-grandmother, Christine Gillard, now living in Bexhill-on-Sea in England, was 16 years old when she gave birth to baby Marguerite (Margo) in Glasgow.

The happy reunion was featured on last night’s edition of ITV’s “Long Lost Families,” in which a delighted Margo learned her mother was looking to find her.

When Christine gave birth to Margo, her father was dead and her mother was away in England looking for work, she had little support but was determined to keep her baby.

She moved in with her elderly grandmother and the three of them shared a single room tenement flat. But as her daughter grew into a toddler and Christine’s grandmother grew frailer, it soon became clear the situation could not carry on as it was. With nowhere else to turn, Christine asked Social Services for the help and they found Marguerite a home with a long-term foster family.

After two years of being her mum, Christine had to say goodbye to her daughter. Although Christine went on to marry and have four more children, she never stopped thinking about her little girl.

Then out of the blue, six years after she had handed her daughter over to the authorities, Christine received news that Marguerite’s foster mother had died and she was eligible to have her daughter back in her life.

At the time, Christine’s marriage was failing and she was struggling financially.

She questioned whether bringing her daughter back into her world would be wise. So to help her decide what would be best for Margo, Christine asked to have her for a weekend. Over the course of the weekend, Christine found out more about eight-year-old Margo’s wonderful foster family.

She had everything that Christine wanted for her - she was materially comfortable and more importantly she had siblings and, although she had lost her foster mother, she had a loving father and a close family unit. By the time Margo’s foster father came to pick her up, Christine had made up her mind. Putting her own feelings aside, she knew that the best thing for her daughter would be for her to stay with her foster family.

Margo, who now lives in the Rosemount area of Derry with husband Thomas, revealed what happened when her mother took the heartbreaking decision to give her up to foster parents.

She revealed that tragically, only two years after the death of her foster mother, her foster father also died, leaving her and her siblings as orphans.

“I was put into a home… it was scary… I had nobody in the world,” she said. But Margo stressed it was her fantastic foster family who gave her the foundation to cope with those difficult years. When shown a photo of Christine by presenter Nicky Campbell, she said: “All them years I haven’t been able to say mum, but now I can say truly you are my mother.” Co-presenter Davina McCall travelled to meet Christine to tell her the difficult news- that her daughter’s life did not turn out the way she had hoped. Mother and daughter were reunited at Pollock House, a stately home just outside of Glasgow - three miles from where they had last seen each other.