Woman’s final attempt to find her identity

Temukisa Stowers-Cole can really do with some help.

And you might just be the person who could help her.

Mrs. Cole, who is based in Wanganui, New Zealand, with her husband and two boys, is in Samoa in search of the truth about her mother.

For her 55-years of existence, she says she has hadno clue about her mother and which village in Samoa she comes.

“So the reason why I’m here is to find my identity,” she told the Samoa Observer. “I want to know where I was born because I was told by so many people that I was born on the streets in Samoa.

“All I know is that my mother is Samoan. I’m not too sure who my father is. I just want the truth about my mother and I would like to know who my grandmother is.”

Mrs. Cole believes there are seven siblings their mother adopted out to different families.

“I was living with the Ah Fook family at the time and there I met my sister who later adopted me,” she says. “My sister and her husband took me to New Zealand. Later on, she (sister) was separated from her husband but her new boyfriend moved into our house.”

At the tender age of 8, Mrs. Cole recalls that she was sexually and physically abused and she was “hardly at school.”

“One day, this little boy who just stayed across the road told his teacher about my situation and the teacher contacted the Social Welfare.

So at the age of 9, I became a property of the state of New Zealand.”

Living as an orphan has been very hard and lonely because she never fitted in anywhere, she said.

“There was always something missing in my life,” she says.

“After years of searching, I found little information about my mother and so JIGSAW (Family Services Incorporated) helped me track down my mother and I found out that she was living in New Zealand at the time.

“One day I went and saw my mother for the first time. I had so many questions that I needed to ask her.

“[But] to my surprise she wasn’t happy to see me, she denied the fact that she was Samoan and I was her daughter. That broke my heart because to me it means that I still have to keep searching for the truth.”

Having arrived in Samoa last week, Mrs. Cole says this is her final attempt at putting together the pieces of her life that are missing.

“I’m tired,” she sayidabout the search for her identity. “This will be my last hope, if I still have no answers then I will give up and live with the fact that I came from nowhere.”

Mrs. Cole was somewhat emotional when she spoke about being Samoan.

“What I’d really love is to be proud to be a Samoan woman despite of what I have been through at a young age. I have learned to forgive and forget about my past and just focus on my children and my family.

“There must be something here in Samoa that belongs to me; I was born here for crying out loud.

“Is it so easy for Samoan people to have children and then chuck them away overseas to nothing?

“It’s not fair.”

With tears rolling down her cheeks, Mrs. Cole says that in a person’s life, he/she deserves to have a father and a mother.

“In my case, I would love to have one,” she says. “I have met so many people who have two sets of parents, they have their real parents and then there are the in laws when they get married, but as for me, I would love to just have one.

“This is my last search then I will give up.

“I would like to know whether I was born in the hospital or on the street according to some people. Am I registered in Samoa or not?

“I would like to know how many siblings my mother has, and especially if I have any siblings living in Samoa.”

If you know anything about Temukisa Stowers-Cole or if you know anyone that might have the answers for her questions, please contact the Samoa Victim Support Group on 27904/7576601