As a 14-year-old girl, adopted Ellen, now 35, is told that her biological mother does not want anything to do with her and does not want to help her in the search for her father. Yet Ellen does not give up: she has now enlisted the help of Caroline Tensen (57) and the team of ‘De Reis Van Je Genes’. Will they manage to bring father and daughter together after all these years?
“When I heard that there was still a daughter walking around, I really liked that”
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Before she is adopted by Huub and Irma, Ellen ends up in a home shortly after her birth. “The most loving, warm family I could end up in,” Ellen describes her family, which also consists of an older brother. She is grateful for her parents, but from an early age she is curious: who am I like? Why have I been relinquished?
When Ellen is fourteen, she starts looking for her biological mother. She is found, but says through the intermediary that she does not want anything to do with her daughter. “That was very painful”, Ellen looks back. “The question of why she had given me up was not answered. As if I am something terrible. I felt it was happening for the second time. Because she gave me up with the birth and again.”
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When Ellen is an adult, she requests her file from Child Protection. The report provides a few answers, but it’s not enough for Ellen and, despite the previous rejection, she approaches her mother again. She finds her through social media and sends her a message in which she writes that she is entitled to a one-time meeting. “We drank coffee, chatted for an hour. She was a very normal woman. She was able to explain a bit, her side of the story, why she gave up to me at the time. But I especially tasted a lot of fear,” Ellen recalls.
Ellen’s biological mother indicates during the conversation that she has been involuntarily with someone and that she cannot and does not want to remember anything. This news does not come as a complete surprise to Ellen, because the file of the Child Protection Agency already stated the same thing. “But I felt the story was wrong,” she continues. “It didn’t feel pure.”
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Caroline encounters a special coincidence in De Reis Van Je Genes
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Whatever happened, Ellen wants to know who her father is. A DNA test matches her with three brothers, one of whom is her father. Before being approached by Caroline and her team, they first make contact with Ellen’s biological mother. The conversation does not go very smoothly and Ellen’s mother again indicates that she does not want to talk about the situation. The names of the three brothers mean nothing to her either.
But when Caroline calls the youngest brother, a bell rings: his brother, who lives in South America, is said to be Ellen’s father. Just as Caroline is about to tell her the news, Ellen receives an email from her birth mother. “If I didn’t expect it from someone, it was her,” said Ellen. In the email, Ellen’s mother indicates that she was shocked by Caroline’s call and that there was one name she had contact with: Paul. “She also indicates that she never thought about that name because weeks later she had that involuntary moment with someone. She assumed that I came from that.”
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Father rejects meeting with son in The Journey Of Your Genes
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Paul never knew he had a daughter. “He was in shock,” Caroline tells Ellen. There is only one small problem: he lives in Uruguay. There 57-year-old Paul works for a large Dutch transport company. Paul already has a son and a daughter from a previous relationship. “When I heard that there is still a daughter walking around, I really liked that,” he says. “I’m really happy for the parents who raised Ellen, I’m really grateful for that. That has also helped me a lot… it’s emotional for me that they raised her. I would have liked to thank them for that, but unfortunately they she’s no longer there. It’s a godsend that she ended up with them.” The reunion between father and daughter is therefore emotional and is accompanied by lots of hugs.
The Journey Of Your Genes see you every Tuesday at 8.30 pm on RTL 4 or look ahead at Videoland.
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