1969- 1994 THE VOICE

OF NORT 4 AND

WE EST VANC VOUVE RR

FAMILY OUTINGS
Keeping the children amused
throughout the summer takes
a Jittle advance planning.

ROOM TO GROW
The North Shore Shopper
expands 1 cover the whol
North Shore.

NEWS photo Mike Wakelield

A PICTURE of happiness. North Vancouver resident Gabrielle Craigen holds a photo of herself with birth daughter Bobbie Holob, who lives in Victoria. Birth moth-

‘er and daughter met for the first time last December. As a resuit of the reunion, Craigen’s Mother’s Day this year has become a

“I GAVE up my baby, but
never the desire to be reunit-
ed with her.”

By Anna Marie D’Angelo
News Reporter

The sentiment is at the root of a
35-year internal struggle for North
Vancouver’s Gabrielle Craigen.

Craigen’s yearning to see her
first child was finally fulfilled Dec.
28, on the steps of a Lonsdale-area
apartment,

“T thought, here is my buby and
she is so beautiful,” ssid Craigen.
55, during an emotional interview in
her homey studio suite with a mil-
lion-dollar view.

Craigen said she could never

have raised the fittle girl on her own
in the Jate 1950s. {t was a time when
unwed mothers were often shunned
and a source of shame.

Craigen was new to Canad. She
had fled Hungary when Soviet
troops and tanks suppressed an anti-
communist uprising in 1956.

She found herself in a foreign
land, 18, unmarried and pregnant
after the first time she had slept with
aman.

She was unable to speak English
and had no family or close friends.

Craigen accepted the decree of

her boyfriend and his parents to
give the baby up for adoption.

In doing so, she says, ber
Hungarian boyfriend (whom she
met here) would do the “honorable
thing” and marry her.

“{ had no one to turn to, { was
vulnerable and did what I was told,”
said Craigen. “We never talked
about it and | was never to bring it
up.”

Craigen and her baby’s father
were married as promised. The cou-
ple had a son, Gregory, two years
later, Two years after that, the cou-
ple divorced.

Craigen had given birth to
Debbie, as she named her, on Nov.
28, 1958 at Vancouver General
Hospital.

That sad time is just a blur for
Criigen.

She remembers a little, being
pregnant and not buying baby
things. The hospital stay doesn’t go

See Mother page 4

little more special.

Daughter’s delight

BOBBIE HOLOB, 35, says
her search for her birth
mother was a less emotion-
al experience than that of
her mother.

By Anna Marie D'Angelo

News Reporter

“Gabrielle has been tormented
for so many years and | didn’t
know that,” said Hofob from
Victoria.

“Tve had a really terrific life

with a stable upbringing. My
adoptive parents have always
been there for me and I could
always turn to them at any time.”

Holob said she has always
known that she was adopted. But
it wasn't until her adoptive moth-
er was diagnosed with breast
cancer that she became interested
in knowing her biological histo-
ry, especially the medical facts.

“Ltook the clinical approach,”
said Holob.

See Reunion page 9