Joan, now in her mid-90s, is haunted by a mystery that has lingered for decades—did she bring home the wrong baby from the hospital more than 70 years ago? Her daughter, Sue, is racing against time to uncover the truth, spurred by a persistent family feeling that William, the man they have known as Joan's son, might not be biologically hers. The family, originally from Warwickshire and now residing in Dorset for the past 50 years, is on an extraordinary journey to piece together a puzzle that has remained unsolved since William's birth in the spring of 1951.
Tom and Joan had longed for a son after raising five daughters. The prospect of bringing home their first baby boy was exciting. However, Tom's words have echoed through the years, casting doubt over their joy:
“I think we brought the wrong one home.” – Tom
Although the NHS maintains no recent records of babies being accidentally switched at birth, Joan's recollections of that fateful day at the hospital are fraught with unsettling moments. She vividly recalls an incident where a nurse almost dropped a baby right into her lap:
“This baby slipped out of her hands and dropped on my legs, and it cried out. If she hadn’t have come quickly to me, she would have dropped him on the floor. I grabbed the baby and pulled him to me, because he was crying.” – Joan
These early experiences left Joan with a lingering sense that something was amiss:
“It was almost like a feeling of: one day they’ll bring me the right baby.” – Joan
Sue learned of these incidents when she was 19 or 20 years old. Armed with her Ancestry subscription, she embarked on a quest to unravel the truth. She meticulously gathered birth records from the area around William's birth and whittled down the list to 130 potential candidates, color-coding those that seemed most promising. Despite her efforts, the search has been challenging.
The family has always noted how different William seemed compared to his siblings:
“I thought, if I’ve got a family, it has to be a family. But he seemed different from the other two,” – Joan
Joan's memories are tinged with regret and a sense of loss:
“I didn’t have the chance to cuddle him. I never held him. It’s a terrible feeling. And even after all these years, you feel it’s not right.” – Joan
During that era, hospitals did not routinely tag babies with wristbands, and infants were kept in separate creches overnight. Mistakes were not unheard of, as highlighted by a reported case in Southampton in November 1992.
Sue remains determined to find answers for her mother:
“I am 99.9% sure he was one of the babies the nurse was carrying. Whether he’s the one that should have been with Mum, we won’t know unless he does a DNA test,” – Sue