The story of four siblings of Greek background who only found each other after 55 years, has only just begun to unfold.
Born within four years of each other (1968-1971) in Sydney, Maria Pittas, Cathie Grissell, James Pappas and Debbie Balsom, were all given up for adoption. They have not confirmed the identities of their biological parents, or the circumstances surrounding their adoption.
Cathie Grissell, an operating theatre nurse living in Brisbane, always wondered about her heritage. Encouraged throughout her life by her adoptive mother to seek out her birth family, she finally took the first step last year by doing a DNA test.
For someone who had never known a single blood relative, the results were astonishing.
“It was incredible to find not just one, but three full siblings—not to mention the nephews and nieces I now have,” she told Neos Kosmos.
After their emotional first meeting in January, in Sydney’s south, not a day goes by without the siblings communicating with each other, as they continue to bond and discover more about their shared heritage.
“My mother always told me that I must be Mediterranean,” Cathie said describing how great it feels to know that she is fully Greek- 98 per cent from the Aegean Islands.
“I’ve been to the Greek islands a long long time ago and I remember how right it felt. I remember lying on a beach in Santorini, trying to figure out why it felt so familiar -like home. And as it turns out, these islands are my home.”
All four have had wonderful upbringings, and it is something they wish their birth mother knew, as they acknowledge how traumatising it must have been to give up not one, but four children. And the question still remains whether their birth mother was actually forced to give them up.
Maria was born in 1968 at St Margaret’s Hospital in Darlinghurst. James and Debbie in Crown Street Women’s Hospital, in the early 1970s. Both hospitals have a dark history. St Margaret’s was known for its cruel treatment of unwed mothers and Crown Street Women’s Hospital, was infamous for forced adoptions, particularly during that era.
Cathie on the other hand, was left on the steps of Bankstown Hospital, when she was only a few weeks old.
Watching their emotional meeting, captured by Ashlea Hansen, none of them resent their biological parents.
“There might be people still alive who remember the story of our birth parents. I would love to know more about my mother,” Cathie told Neos Kosmos. “I would love to just give her a hug and tell her that we did okay in life. Because if she was forced to give us up -which feels like a very likely scenario- can you imagine how hard it must have been, as a mother, to let go of four children?”
James and Debbie were raised together by a Greek-Arab-speaking family, while Maria grew up in a Greek home. Unlike Cathie, who is only now beginning to explore her roots, the others had a connection to their Greek heritage and language from an early age.
As DNA matches continue to unpack more details about their birth parents and the Greek island they came from, the siblings are bracing for the possibility of finding more relatives—and perhaps even more siblings.
For now, their greatest joy is simply in the bond they are building. A brother and three sisters, making up for lost time.
