It’s difficult to grow up without your parents. Even those who get adopted still search for their biological parents. Somehow, there is always that void you cannot ignore.
But what if your parents suddenly disappeared? No note, no warning, no goodbye; gone without a trace. It will leave you with so many questions – mostly why’s. How would you move on from that?
Your ordinary housewife
Vera Daisy Brown seemed like an ordinary country housewife in the 70s. She raised her three children in New South Wales.
However, her disappearance was a big mystery to them. All these were only made clear when they finally saw each other.
Gone for 32 years
It started when Vera met a man named Les Kendall, who promised her all the good things in the world. He told her they would take a much-needed vacation to Queensland, to which she excitedly went.
Days have gone, and her children never heard of her again. They knew she would only be away for a few days. After a fortnight, they reported her as missing. Since then, they’ve been looking for her every single year.
Confusing letters and lost connection
Her daughter Gwen showed some letters that Vera had sent for some time. But still, it made no sense to them. Their mother would assure them she was fine and would be home soon. Then in November 1972, the letters stopped coming.
They lost their only connection to their mother. Lost and without a clue, they all hoped that the police could find her. Year after year, they got nothing. But that changed until 2004.
Finding Vera: A store of police persistence
Only when Les died in 2004 did the police start to get their leads in the right direction. They knocked on her residence in Adelaide and asked if she knew Vera Brown – this she denied the first time.
But the police were persistent. They kept coming back and were also looking for clues and signs that would point them to prove their hypothesis. Until, at one point, Vera admitted her identity, and the police could finally mark their missing person “located.”
The mysterious disappearance explained
In an interview with 60 minutes Australia, Vera finally revealed why she went into hiding for 32 years. She said that during that vacation in 1972, Les didn’t commit to taking her back. Instead, they started building their home.
Les also manipulated Vera and made her believe that they should be hiding because creditors were after them. It took her too long to realize that all those were lies, and all those lies led to her children being without their mother for more than three decades.
The reunion
The time has come for the children to finally meet their mother. Gwen and Ray drove to Adelaide, unsure of how they would feel. One thing’s for sure; there were questions they wanted to ask. Whether they forgive her or not would depend on this meeting.
The siblings walked to the backyard where their mother was standing and waiting for them. Tears were on their faces, and it seemed like forgiveness had won them over. They have more time to talk about all the years they’ve lost. For now, they found her, and that was enough.
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