Bernadette had always known she was adopted. On her 18th birthday, with the help of an adoption agency, Bernadette's adoptive mother helped her piece together her background, "There wasn't a great deal that we knew at that stage, just that I'd been abandoned in a church and left for dead. Marie was there cleaning and she found me. I went back to the church for the first time in April this year. I got very upset and I found it very difficult to comprehend that this was the start of my life."
Bernadette traced Marie through the newspaper clippings from 1969, kept by the adoption agency. It was surprisingly easy to make contact. Marie's name and address in the newspaper enabled directory enquiries to give Bernadette her phone number. Bernadette was nervous about making contact, "My biological mother had rejected me a second time. I've met her, and she said 'I didn't want you then and don't want you now', so I was very nervous that Marie might do the same."
Marie takes up the story, "I got a phone call from a lady. She asked me had I anywhere to sit, so I did sit down and she told me that she was the baby I'd found after 30 years. I was stunned. She wanted to meet me, and I said yes you're welcome to come up to my house. She brought her two children and her adoptive mum with her. I didn't sleep that night. I kept thinking about her."
Bernadette, "We met on Easter Weekend for the first time. It was wonderful, it was an instant click, there was a bond there straightaway. It was as if I'd gone round to a friends for coffee. It was an incredible feeling, very emotional though." Marie recalls, "When the day came round to meet Bernadette, I felt very nervous, in fact I was shaking. We gave each other such a hug. Tears were in my eyes and Bernadette's. I never thought this would happen, it's like a dream come true."
Meeting Marie meant that Bernadette could find out what had happened all those years ago. Marie explains, "I was working at St Josephs church, Preston, cleaning. It was an normal day, but a cold day. I went out, into the porch and there was the baby on the table in just a couple of flannelette blankets wrapped round. I opened the bundle, so and it was a really new born baby - there was blood still on its head and cord was attached. I wrapped it back up and ran to the priest in charge and he could see by my face it was true. He baptised the baby and called her Josephine. In hospital she was called baby Jane after the film and the book Whatever Happened to Baby Jane. I felt very distressed that day. I went to the hospital to see the baby. I wanted to pick her up, but I wasn't allowed to... I didn't know what had happened to the baby, but she was thought of a lot by myself and my family."
Bernadette and Marie phone each other now several times a week. Bernadette's feeling on the relationship is clear, "I'm not planning on letting Marie go out of my life so easily this time. She's got me for good now."
