The Secret of the Two Chairs
Marie Oakley was now in her 80s. When the investigator called her, she broke down. She told him a story of survival that explained why Mike had ended up on the streets.
At 16, she had married a sailor who left her in a shack in Tennessee with no money. “My son didn’t even have a crib,” she recalled. “He slept on two chairs pushed together with a locker across them.”
When baby Mike developed a serious stomach condition, Marie realized she couldn’t afford the medical care to save his life. She made the ultimate sacrifice: she gave him up for adoption so he could live.
She never stopped wondering what happened to him. Hearing that her son had spent 30 years homeless destroyed her, but she knew she had to see him.
The reunion was set. After 65 years, the “ghost” was going home.
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