“I’ve been living a totally different life. I’ve been living my life as Anna Latrice Cummings, but I’m not Anna Latrice Cummings,” said Anna.
Anna hardly knows how to introduce herself. “Legally, what’s on my birth certificate is Anna Latrice Jefferson.” But for the first 18 years of her life Anna never knew this. Only when she moved away from the people she’d thought were her parents did they tell her they were not.
“They were like me and my daddy got something to tell you. I said what is it?” Instead they gave her this birth certificate and hospital record naming a mother Anna had never known. Her parents said she didn’t want to take care of her.
“They didn’t explain it to me like they kidnapped me,” Anna said. “It’s basically, just please let it alone, but I know why they don’t want to talk about it, because they know what they did.” Only recently did Anna learn more. Last month at her friends’ urging, Anna began to search for answers.
She called the hospital and the Department of Human Services, learning that she’d never been legally adopted. Then Sunday, relentless looking led to a cousin., an uncle, and a sister. But with these joys came crushing news. Anna’s biological parents had died. Her father passed in 2009 and her mother in 2006.
“I just wish she was here. I just wish I could let her know that I am here and that I’m alive,” Anna said. Anna’s sister said her mother had wanted her and did search for her. But eventually, she had accepted that her little girl was lost.
And soon she’ll be there… Tuesday she’s headed to the state where she was born, to reunite with the family she’d had, but never knew. “It’s confusing and nerve wracking because I got to start all over again, like I’m being reborn all over again.”