A Family Divided


A Family Divided

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This programme contains some strong language

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-Do you want a wee drink? Cheers.

-Cheers.

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THEY CONVERSE INAUDIBLY

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It was a terrible thing that a family should be split up the way it was.

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And what happened to these kids, that was criminal.

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This is just one family and look at the mess.

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The tragedy of the whole thing is that all those missing years,

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if only we knew about each other.

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I would say, we were...

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..ignored and we were cheated out of getting to know

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all our brothers and sisters.

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When you look at everything that has happened to us all,

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everything that happened to everybody, it's so strange.

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You know, how did they get away with that in them days?

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We were all taken from our mother,

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we were all separated from each other,

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scattered all over Scotland and we were lied to for years.

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My name is Bernard Clark.

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I was born the 8th of August 1954 in Greenock.

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My name is Joan Clark.

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My birthday is 21/05/'53.

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Joan was always my protector,

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if you want to call her that.

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That's Bernard, he's my young brother.

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We grew up together. He is a character.

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He winds me up constantly and always has, since we were wee.

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We were removed in 1956 from the family home...

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..because of the state we were in, health-wise.

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It was quite horrific.

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We had a wee sister, Sandra, who was taken away at the same time,

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and she was only four months.

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The only thing I could think of was they didn't want us.

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But as I got older and learned all the different things,

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it was through being poor that they lost us.

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There's newspaper stories about our family in the local library.

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I'll join that and see if I can find this.

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-There we go.

-Yes.

-Right.

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"June 1956.

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"Greenock mother gets maximum jail sentence.

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"For what the deputy fiscal described as one of the worst cases

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"of child neglect he had encountered."

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Now, that is you, that's me and that's Sandra.

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Sandra. Right.

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"She wilfully neglected three children in a manner likely to cause

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"them unnecessary suffering and injury to their health."

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-Right.

-"Accused and her family were living in a drinking den.

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"The baby was lying in a foul-smelling pram.

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"The children were in a disgusting state.

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"They were filthy, scantily clad, and their bodies...

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"..and their bodies were infested with head and body lice."

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When I read the paper, I was actually shocked.

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How can you let somewhere go that bad

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that, if you were drinking, you wouldn't notice?

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Reading it, I know it is me and Bernard and Sandra,

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but I have put it away in a box.

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It didn't seem real.

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I can understand why anybody that came into that property and seen

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three kids in that state would have them taken away and put into care.

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"It was scarcely credible that such a disregard and cruel outlook

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"towards young children could be adopted by any person,

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"least of all a mother."

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She didn't have a solicitor,

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she didn't have anybody to stand up for her and,

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quite honestly, when you read the report in the paper,

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they crucified her.

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"'I had no hesitation at all in imposing the maximum sentence

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"of six months' imprisonment,' said Sheriff Wilson."

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It doesn't even feel real.

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It feels like it's somebody's story, but it's somebody else's story.

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-It's as if it is not our story.

-I know.

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But I always knew I had a wee sister.

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For some reason, I always knew I had a wee sister.

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Sandra was separated from me and Joan.

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Why we were separated, I don't know.

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You would have thought they would have kept us together.

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Joan, myself,

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we were fostered out to a Mrs Carr in Greenock.

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Very first memory I have is in the home and there was a big, big, shiny

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table and I was placed on the table and told to walk across the table.

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And the lady's saying to me, "This is your new mum,"

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and that was Mrs Carr.

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I would say, "Mum," and she would say to me, "I'm not your mum.

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"Don't call me Mum, I'm not your mum."

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Regarding her as a mother, I never did that.

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She was a person that put the fear of God into you.

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There was times I was terrified.

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She was a big woman, so if she gave you a slap, you knew about it.

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Bernard was put into bed and he was crying.

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And I was put into bed with him.

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And I says to him, "Don't worry, we'll be all right."

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Joan would stick up for me and she would take the beating,

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rather than her wee brother taking the beating.

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She was strict. I don't ever remember being cuddled.

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I don't ever remember that.

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Cos I don't think that was the type of person she was.

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She was always chasing us.

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She was running after us with a poker.

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And she hit the table, she missed,

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and broke her fingers and that is the only reason that I remember it,

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because she broke her fingers.

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As far as I knew, it was just Joan and I.

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I was never told about any other brothers and sisters.

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Our foster mother kept saying to us, "If you meet anybody, Clark -

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"don't you be going out with anybody called Clark."

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And I went, "Aye, OK."

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First contact came out of the blue.

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It was the year 2011...

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..and a car stopped outside.

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When I met George and Jim, when them two walked into the house,

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nobody had to tell me, I knew when I seen them, even getting out of

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the car before they came to the door,

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that them two were my brothers.

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My name is James McIver Clark, born 19th of March 1947.

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Didn't know anything about Jim.

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Didn't know anything about George.

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I said, "How many more?"

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When we met, it was as if we knew each other all our lives.

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The feeling that came over me, it was so natural.

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We are family.

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They spent years looking for me and they told me that there was

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a lot more of us.

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I'm 59 years old and I'm finding out for the first time,

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I could have 17, 18 siblings.

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Some had passed away, but there was others they were still looking for.

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My feelings of that day...

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I was amazed

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the number of family that we had...

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..but fucking angry that I was never told about any of these...

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..told any of that information by anybody before.

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George told the story of how he has been looking for his siblings

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and the rest of his family.

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George was committed completely to finding out about everybody.

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The hard work...

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..the research, the graft was all done by George.

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George started this over 40-odd years ago.

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It was a lifetime work, but it must have been a mammoth task.

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Trying to find people that didn't exist.

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And he never gave up.

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Even when Inverclyde District Council turned round and says,

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"We don't know anything about them."

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George never took that as an answer,

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because he wanted the truth.

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Always George and me were together.

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Most of the time, I looked after George cos the parents were too busy

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in the next room or in the pub drinking, and a lot of strangers

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came in and out. We didn't know who was family and who wasn't.

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Then the police got involved, we were handed over to the courts.

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George was four and a half and I was six and a half.

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We were only kids.

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George and I came out with two little brown suitcases, then this

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other lad appeared and they said, "That's your brother."

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It's like saying it's raining, it didn't mean anything,

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cos we didn't know him.

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We didn't know that was Tommy.

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We didn't know he was our brother.

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We were put in a car and driven up to the Highlands to be boarded out.

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Boarding out was the welfare's way of getting children

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out of the cities.

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They sent kids to the farms in the Highlands,

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where farmers were paid to bring them up.

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It was supposed to get them away from the poverty in the cities

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to a clean upbringing.

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They were put somewhere where they were supposed to have been

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taken care of, to be safe.

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And it didn't happen.

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When we arrived there, it was all nice,

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the wife and the farmer were all nice and friendly,

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and very pleasant, "Have a bit of chocolate,"

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and all this sort of thing.

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This went on for two days.

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And on the third day, she hit me so hard,

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it knocked me out. I was out for hours.

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And that's when it started.

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Because Tommy was older,

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they accepted him, cos he could work on the farm.

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Because George and I were too small to work on the farm

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and that really annoyed her.

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George and I were helping to clear out this old chicken shed,

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then they came in and threw a couple of old 1940s beds -

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there was no mattresses, it was just potato sacks.

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The wind howled through and we were put in there and that was our

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accommodation for the whole time we were there.

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The cruelty...

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..is a polite word.

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The farmer's wife hated us.

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When this woman beat you, she used anything she could pick up,

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it could be a broom handle, a branch of a tree, an iron bar.

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The amount of beatings, I lost count.

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You could say, on average, every couple of days.

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They'd tie you by your wrists,

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so you were high enough and your toes would barely touch the ground

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and leave you there. You could be screaming, you would have no food.

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This is two or three days at a time sometimes.

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You're just left hanging there.

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Sometimes they'd give you a really good smack with the branch of a tree

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and just walk away from you.

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Imagine somebody grabbing you by the hair, beating the...

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Excuse the expression, but beating the crap of you, a little child,

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only so...

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I don't see myself now as an adult.

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I see myself as that child, struggling to...

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either live or die.

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Because I ran away so much, the police got involved.

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We did find a report from the local police.

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"3rd of March 1957.

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"Farmer called and reported that two orphans, Thomas and James Clark,

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"were missing.

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"Eventually, the boys were located in woods by a local farmer.

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"The boys were quite prepared to go back to the farm...

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"..and they were both clean and well cared for."

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Where did this come from, "We were clean and well cared for"?

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No way.

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Only time we were lucky enough to have a bath

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was when it rained heavy.

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And the last bit says, "They were late going home from church

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"and they were afraid to go home."

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Of course we were afraid to go home,

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cos we knew exactly what was going to happen.

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They were evil.

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The police, they'd ask us, you know, "Why did you run away?"

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and stuff like that, and we daren't say anything.

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You'd put your life in your hands if you said anything.

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And at the same time, I didn't trust the police, either.

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So the best thing to do was just...

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There was one incident, I got such a hell of a beating,

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when I was released, I just legged it straight down to the bog area.

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These were old peat bogs, where all the peat was, it was all full of water.

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I wanted to... I wanted it all to stop.

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All I had to do was just move a couple of inches, and I wouldn't be here.

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Some time, 2014, George got in contact with the Sunday Mail,

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and we told the story.

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"The Secret Slaves of Scotland, the Child Slaves of Scotland."

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Maybe lost members of the family would read this...

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..and realise that they were a member of this family,

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that had been searching for years for lost siblings.

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I remember seeing the article, and I didn't read it at the time,

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but my name was in the article.

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So, if I'd read it, I'd have been on the phone to the newspaper to say,

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"I'm one of the brothers."

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My name is Ian MacLean.

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I was born David Fleming Clark on the 17th of January 1952.

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I was adopted at ten months.

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I was adopted through a Salvation Army home...

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..and I had blemishes all over my skin, possibly through neglect.

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This is me and my adoptive mother.

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I'm just about a year and a half old.

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What this photograph tells me is how important it was...

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..for my mother to have a child,

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because they thought they weren't going to have a family.

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And you can see from the expression on my mother's face...

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..how proud she is to have her own son.

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When I look at it, I see my mum.

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I see the only mum that I'd ever known.

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And it wasn't until later, when I was 18,

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that I was told that I was adopted.

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You're struggling with, "Who are you? What happened?

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"Where did I come from?

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"Who are my family? And what are the reasons?"

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And the big question - why?

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My name is Ian Wilson Savage.

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I was born Peter Clark on the 11th of November 1950

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in the town of Greenock.

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A letter come through the letterbox from social services in Greenock.

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It said that there was a family looking for me.

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I had no idea whatsoever that there was another family existed.

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I was lucky, I got adopted,

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and my adoption was a fairly good one.

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When I was about six years of age,

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my mother sat me down one day and said to me that I had been adopted,

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and sat and explained what that meant to me.

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I think I just looked at the family I had and thought,

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"Well, that's my real family."

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I didn't really want to know anything about the family,

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because I assumed, you know, again, that they were all dead.

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The doorbell went and I went up to answer the door and there's this guy,

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this man standing there, guy standing there,

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more or less the same age as me.

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So he said to me, "I'm George."

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And there's my brother standing there,

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and it was as if we'd known each other for 60 years.

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There was absolutely no difference, it was just George.

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George achieved his goal.

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He found them two boys.

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I call them boys!

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But he found both of them.

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We were both adopted separately.

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We grew up without knowing anything about each other or, in fact,

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anything about any of the others.

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I remember the day that George walked in, his face was beaming.

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-Aye.

-I says, "You've found the other brother."

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He says, "How did you know that?"

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I says, "I can tell by the relief and the excitement

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-"and all the rest of it on your face."

-Aye.

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George was the driving force to bring the family together.

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He's such an open person, George, in his own way.

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And he had the information,

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and we were only starting to get to know George when, unfortunately,

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he passed away.

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He was a terrific person to meet, to listen to.

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Erm, and...

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..I miss him.

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It's important to me now, because it was important to George.

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It's as if I've been given the responsibility,

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now that George is in a better place, if you want to call it that.

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I've been given the responsibility now to finish it all.

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And I'd love to do it and be able to say, at the end of the day,

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"Well, George, there you go, there's the story finished."

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Greenock is a big part of the family story,

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because that's where everyone was born.

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But then a lot of the family ended up in Dundee.

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I'm going to drop in to an old friend

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of my late brother George's, Janet.

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-Hi, Janet.

-Hi, Bernard, come in.

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Janet spent years helping George with his research.

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I remember George telling me that, when he first started all this,

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the amount of time that George spent...

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..on trying to trace everybody.

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He used to be along some days at half past seven in the morning,

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and away till ten o'clock at night.

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THEY LAUGH

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And went we found out that there was 17 to 18 siblings,

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it really took George by surprise.

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All he could say, "I can't believe this, I can't believe this."

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-Aye.

-George went to the Inverclyde authorities,

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he asked about you and Joan, and he got told that youse didn't exist.

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That's unbelievable.

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George knew that Joan and I existed.

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And for them to turn round...

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..years later and say we don't exist is absolutely unbelievable.

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He knew there was a Bernard and he knew there was a Joan.

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He was told there was a Sandra,

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but she was adopted and sent to Australia.

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Yeah, we were all told that.

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I think the words they used was, "In the future,

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"don't even attempt to try and find her."

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We were always led to believe that Sandra had been adopted

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and emigrated abroad.

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But Sandra had been adopted by a family down in Ayr.

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They lied to us.

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It was a complete made-up story.

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Why? Why? What were they trying to achieve?

0:25:360:25:39

When George finally found Sandra...

0:25:450:25:48

..we went down to meet her and her family near Ayr.

0:25:500:25:55

We'd been separated for 57 years.

0:25:570:26:00

She was never told about any of the other siblings.

0:26:040:26:07

Sandra couldn't even remember Joan and myself.

0:26:090:26:12

To find out then about all the rest, I mean, she was just overcome,

0:26:120:26:17

and, I would say, with joy.

0:26:170:26:18

A few months after we did get to meet her, she passed away.

0:26:200:26:24

There was another sister in Dundee, Mary Ann.

0:26:330:26:37

She was the older sister.

0:26:380:26:40

I didn't even know about her until George came along.

0:26:430:26:46

Hi, Charlie.

0:26:520:26:54

'Mary Ann passed away in 1993.'

0:26:540:26:56

Hi, Gary. 'But I got to know her two sons, Charlie and Gary.'

0:26:570:27:02

Although we've got some information on your mum, Mary, I really want

0:27:030:27:08

-to know why this all happened, you know?

-Yeah.

0:27:080:27:13

Obviously, there was a darkness some place there, right?

0:27:130:27:16

-Yeah.

-Aye.

-And, you know,

0:27:160:27:17

words like Greenock and Glasgow become like the bogeyman, you know,

0:27:170:27:21

dinnae go there, dinnae speak about they things.

0:27:210:27:23

And my mother would tell us kind of bits, but again, the attitude was,

0:27:230:27:26

-"You've got to protect the bairns from..."

-Of course.

0:27:260:27:29

"This is pretty horrific stuff, we've got to protect the bairns."

0:27:290:27:32

People were judgmental in those days, and my mum always used to say to us about keeping the house clean,

0:27:320:27:36

because the factor would come and take you away from your parents.

0:27:360:27:38

-That's right.

-And we thought it was my mum kind of threatening us.

0:27:380:27:41

She would wash our clothes in Domestos, in bleach.

0:27:410:27:43

You went to school stinking of bleach.

0:27:430:27:45

And it was always that story came to you about somebody in the background

0:27:450:27:50

that could take you away.

0:27:500:27:52

She had this real agony around her family being ripped apart,

0:27:520:27:55

because my mum was a pure hero for her family.

0:27:550:27:57

Kind of like bringing up bairns wouldn't have been easy in those

0:27:570:28:00

days, either. I think my mum probably drank a lot more and stuff

0:28:000:28:03

like that when she got older, because she was trying to sort of

0:28:030:28:06

bury the demons of the past.

0:28:060:28:07

She lost her family,

0:28:070:28:09

and her family was dear to her.

0:28:090:28:12

See, the most haunting thing for me...

0:28:120:28:14

I remember at the end of my mum's life, two days before she died,

0:28:140:28:18

and people become really reflective at that stage of their life.

0:28:180:28:21

And the thing she always went on to me about was,

0:28:210:28:25

"Try and find out what happened to the wee yins."

0:28:250:28:27

She was meaning our brothers.

0:28:270:28:29

She always had this thing about wanting to find them.

0:28:290:28:32

-Yeah, she did.

-And the most harrowing thing is, she never found them.

0:28:320:28:36

Mary Ann watched six of her brothers

0:28:410:28:45

being taken from the family home and scattered all over Scotland.

0:28:450:28:50

Peter and David were adopted.

0:28:530:28:56

Tommy, Jim and George were all boarded out

0:28:570:29:01

to a farm in the Highlands.

0:29:010:29:04

And there was also Billy, our oldest brother.

0:29:040:29:07

He was sent to a children's home in Aberdeen, on his own.

0:29:070:29:14

The family heard very little of him after that.

0:29:140:29:17

Losing all of those brothers

0:29:190:29:22

must have been heartbreaking for Mary Ann.

0:29:220:29:24

I would love to have met Mary,

0:29:280:29:30

because she was the true head of the family.

0:29:300:29:32

She would have been the one that made up for not having...

0:29:340:29:37

..a proper mother and father.

0:29:390:29:41

There's only two that George never found.

0:29:560:29:59

Tommy, born in 1945...

0:30:000:30:03

..and Andrew, born in 1957, who's the youngest.

0:30:050:30:09

But he lost contact with them for such a long time.

0:30:110:30:15

That would put a final chapter to his story,

0:30:150:30:18

to put an end to the complete Clark...

0:30:180:30:21

I don't want to call it a story... History.

0:30:230:30:26

With Tommy, with Andrew, with...

0:30:270:30:29

I don't know if I'll ever meet these people,

0:30:300:30:32

because they're gone, as far as we're concerned, we can't find them.

0:30:320:30:36

Right, this is the website on the internet.

0:30:370:30:41

The only photo we've got of Andrew - in his army uniform.

0:30:430:30:46

And we just let him know that, if he's out there,

0:30:460:30:50

to somehow make some sort of contact with us

0:30:500:30:53

because we're looking for him.

0:30:530:30:55

And we do that every year on his birthday.

0:30:550:30:58

But so far we've never had a reply.

0:30:580:31:00

That's you there. I'll leave you to it.

0:31:120:31:15

I am 64 years of age and I have never seen my adoption court papers.

0:31:200:31:26

This, for me, is quite an emotional thing, to find out about my past.

0:31:260:31:31

"Adoption order of Ian MacLean,

0:31:370:31:40

"birth name David Fleming Clark.

0:31:400:31:44

"Entry to be marked with the word 'adopted'."

0:31:440:31:46

This is my birth parents signing away their responsibility

0:31:520:31:56

and giving me over for adoption.

0:31:560:31:58

"Elizabeth O'Brien Clark, being the mother of said child,

0:32:010:32:05

"hereby state that I understand that the effect of the order will be

0:32:050:32:09

"permanent, to deprive me of my parental rights..."

0:32:090:32:13

I just want to pause, just for a second.

0:32:160:32:19

I'm trying...

0:32:210:32:23

In those few moments, I'm trying to picture what it would be like...

0:32:230:32:26

..for a mother...

0:32:270:32:28

..to give up a child.

0:32:300:32:31

I don't know how she coped.

0:32:340:32:36

I genuinely don't.

0:32:360:32:38

It's easy to blame the mother.

0:32:410:32:43

I've always tried to put myself back, when I've read the story,

0:32:430:32:45

back into the mother and father's shoes.

0:32:450:32:47

They obviously neglected the children. For what reason, though?

0:32:470:32:50

George told me, when I met George and Jim for the first time, 2011,

0:32:530:32:59

was we also had six siblings,

0:32:590:33:01

six youngsters, young brothers and sisters,

0:33:010:33:05

that died at very, very young ages.

0:33:050:33:09

There was John, there was Isabel, there was Ruth, there was Anna,

0:33:090:33:13

there was Elizabeth and there was Peter.

0:33:130:33:16

Some of them died very, very...

0:33:190:33:20

Within days of just being born.

0:33:200:33:23

Erm, and that, in itself...

0:33:240:33:25

..points to the sort of conditions that they were left in.

0:33:270:33:29

For my mum to lose six, I realised what she'd went through.

0:33:330:33:38

When I was first married, I lost one child.

0:33:410:33:45

It's been 40...43 years...

0:33:480:33:52

..since my daughter died.

0:33:530:33:55

And it still kills me.

0:34:030:34:05

It never leaves you.

0:34:080:34:09

And I think anybody would have turned to drink...

0:34:100:34:14

..to forget.

0:34:150:34:17

But you never forget.

0:34:200:34:21

They died, some of them were only a few days old,

0:34:340:34:38

and they're all buried in Greenock cemetery,

0:34:380:34:42

which I've walked through on many occasions

0:34:420:34:46

and I didn't even know they were there.

0:34:460:34:48

So this is where they're buried.

0:34:500:34:52

You walk in here...

0:34:520:34:53

And all you've got is this, the marker.

0:34:530:34:56

If you read it, "In loving memory, rest in peace."

0:34:560:34:59

It doesn't tell you anything.

0:34:590:35:01

-Our wee siblings, where are they?

-Historically, this is a pauper's grave.

0:35:010:35:05

It's a pauper's grave. Anybody that was poor was dumped here. It's like

0:35:050:35:08

a piece of bloody waste ground, that's what it's like.

0:35:080:35:12

When you think, the struggle we had of finding each other

0:35:120:35:15

in the first place, and now we're having a struggle even finding

0:35:150:35:19

where our own siblings are buried.

0:35:190:35:23

It's a...

0:35:230:35:24

-You just...

-It's sad.

0:35:240:35:26

I find it shameful.

0:35:280:35:29

Not only shameful, painful.

0:35:310:35:33

There's a deep sadness for the kids that are buried here.

0:35:350:35:38

A deep sadness for the family that didn't have an opportunity

0:35:380:35:43

to say goodbye.

0:35:430:35:44

That, to me, is important.

0:35:460:35:49

One of the biggest struggles we've had as a family

0:36:010:36:04

is getting information from the authorities.

0:36:040:36:07

Simple as that, just information on our lives.

0:36:070:36:10

In the case of George and Jim...

0:36:200:36:22

..it took them four-and-a-half years to get access to their files.

0:36:230:36:29

I remember George telling me that one of the social workers

0:36:290:36:34

said to him, "Just forget it and go and get a life."

0:36:340:36:38

We felt, most of the time, that we were getting fobbed off.

0:36:430:36:45

Their favourite saying, "This is going to upset you,

0:36:450:36:49

"you shouldn't live in the past."

0:36:490:36:51

They love saying that.

0:36:510:36:52

It's going to open old wounds. I said, "The wounds are open anyway,

0:36:530:36:57

"they've always been open."

0:36:570:36:58

This is not just one family,

0:37:000:37:02

there are hundreds of families being put through the system

0:37:020:37:04

and left in a mess.

0:37:040:37:07

It's got to stop.

0:37:070:37:08

I hate paperwork.

0:37:200:37:21

The first meeting I had with Inverclyde District Council,

0:37:230:37:27

the idea was for me to go there and actually view any files they had

0:37:270:37:33

on myself, personal files.

0:37:330:37:34

It is quite a large bundle,

0:37:340:37:36

but what they told me was that, because the file had references

0:37:360:37:42

in there to my sister Joan, I couldn't actually view the file.

0:37:420:37:46

You couldn't even look over,

0:37:470:37:49

to maybe have a wee glance, because the file was put there,

0:37:490:37:54

the person sat there, and I sat here.

0:37:540:37:57

Just going through the file, writing down,

0:37:570:38:00

going through the file,

0:38:000:38:02

writing that down, going through the file, writing that down...

0:38:020:38:05

And she handed me that and said, "Well, that's your story,

0:38:050:38:10

"that's your record of your life in care."

0:38:100:38:13

15 years. They've basically given you handwritten crap,

0:38:130:38:18

cos that's what it is.

0:38:180:38:19

I don't understand why they're withholding all that info,

0:38:210:38:24

all that... What does it mean...?

0:38:240:38:27

I mean, it means nothing to them, but it means a hell of a lot to me.

0:38:270:38:30

Asking a simple question like, "Why was I taken into care?"

0:38:330:38:37

What's wrong with that question?

0:38:370:38:39

It's as if I'm doing something wrong, you know,

0:38:390:38:41

you actually feel as if you're doing something wrong

0:38:410:38:43

by asking that question.

0:38:430:38:45

I'm pulling together documentation here for a human rights solicitor.

0:39:070:39:13

He is going to, hopefully,

0:39:150:39:17

give us advice on anything else we can do to access information

0:39:170:39:22

on our family.

0:39:220:39:23

Under the Data Protection Act, you can ask for information

0:39:260:39:29

about yourself, but they are not allowed to divulge information

0:39:290:39:34

about anybody else.

0:39:340:39:35

In certain circumstances councils hide behind the Data Protection Act?

0:39:350:39:39

Yes, they hide behind it but also they have to watch themselves.

0:39:390:39:42

'I think it's very sad that families can be kept apart

0:39:420:39:46

'and not know that other members of the family exist.'

0:39:460:39:49

You should have a right, somehow, to know that you had a family,

0:39:490:39:52

that should be your choice as you get older.

0:39:520:39:55

There must be documentation available that would help us

0:39:550:39:58

trace these people, or would that, again, come under...?

0:39:580:40:00

Well, there might well be.

0:40:000:40:02

I suppose all you could say to the social work department would be,

0:40:020:40:06

"Would you be prepared to let us have copies of any documentation

0:40:060:40:09

"which might assist us tracing these people?"

0:40:090:40:11

You know, they can easily turn round and say,

0:40:110:40:13

"Well, I'm sorry, there's no other file."

0:40:130:40:16

And you're stuck.

0:40:160:40:17

Here we are, 2016, and we've not really got any rights.

0:40:250:40:28

You know, it's crazy to me.

0:40:280:40:31

What the system has done to this family is pulled the family apart...

0:40:340:40:38

..in unmentionable ways.

0:40:390:40:41

When you look at what Jim is like now,

0:40:430:40:45

when you look at Bernard, you look at Joan,

0:40:450:40:47

they've all come through traumas of one thing or another.

0:40:470:40:49

You can see the hurt on their faces, you can see it with Jim,

0:40:510:40:54

when they talk about these stories, they go into a dark place.

0:40:540:40:57

When I was 15...

0:40:580:41:01

..I got involved with drugs.

0:41:030:41:05

I started taking drugs

0:41:050:41:06

because it was the only way I could get closure.

0:41:060:41:09

I couldn't stand anybody in authority telling me anything.

0:41:090:41:12

I was homeless a lot, I slept rough for quite a few years.

0:41:140:41:18

I used to do things to get put in jail, so I'd get a bit of rest.

0:41:190:41:22

I wanted to destroy myself.

0:41:230:41:25

HE SIGHS

0:41:270:41:29

I mean, how could I...?

0:41:360:41:38

I had a, and I still do to a certain extent, have a problem with alcohol.

0:41:380:41:42

And I did get in to a lot of trouble. I mean, I've been to

0:41:440:41:47

prison cos of fighting.

0:41:470:41:49

I lost everything, I lost my job...

0:41:490:41:52

..I lost my family, and that all stemmed from...

0:41:530:41:56

..my early years over in Ireland.

0:41:580:42:00

Mrs Carr used to take us on holidays, school holidays,

0:42:050:42:09

we'd go across to Ireland.

0:42:090:42:10

The first memories I have of it, I must've been about six or seven,

0:42:120:42:17

it didn't happen right away.

0:42:170:42:18

It only happened on certain nights and it seemed to be weekend nights.

0:42:180:42:22

Cos I'd be the only one in these bedrooms,

0:42:240:42:27

everybody else would be away out for the night.

0:42:270:42:30

I remember being terrified.

0:42:300:42:32

You're in pitch-black.

0:42:320:42:34

As you get older, you begin to realise this isn't right.

0:42:370:42:41

There's something going on here, this shouldn't be happening to me.

0:42:410:42:45

When I got to the age of about 13, 14, I refused to go...

0:42:470:42:51

..and there was a reason for that.

0:42:530:42:56

Erm, so...

0:42:580:43:00

It's not something I really speak about.

0:43:030:43:06

-Were you abused?

-Mm-hm.

0:43:060:43:07

So when I became a father, I didn't know how to react,

0:43:220:43:25

I didn't know anything about bringing up kids or what a father

0:43:250:43:29

should do, because I've never...

0:43:290:43:31

I've never been able to hug.

0:43:410:43:43

I've never hugged my kids.

0:43:460:43:49

But they've accepted that.

0:43:500:43:52

But it hurts.

0:43:540:43:56

So great you've met these people,

0:44:110:44:13

it's so great you've now got brothers and sisters and you can sit

0:44:130:44:15

and talk and talk about things that happened in the past

0:44:150:44:18

and find out about each other.

0:44:180:44:21

What's it like, Jim, coming back after all these years,

0:44:210:44:24

-back to the Highlands?

-It's strange.

0:44:240:44:26

Jim has really been through a lot.

0:44:280:44:30

He showed me what happened to him, and the places where it happened.

0:44:300:44:34

And, you know, I really think that is a release for him.

0:44:360:44:39

He's got his own personality, Jim.

0:44:450:44:47

I can only put that down to, obviously,

0:44:470:44:49

the trauma that Jim went through.

0:44:490:44:51

Just look at this place,

0:44:590:45:00

you wouldn't believe the horrors that happened across the Highlands.

0:45:000:45:03

The day we got out of there was because of the welfare officers

0:45:050:45:09

turned up unannounced.

0:45:090:45:10

We were standing outside the kitchen window, usual threats -

0:45:100:45:13

if we said anything, they'd batter the hell out of us.

0:45:130:45:16

They passed us, went in the house, came out, didn't say anything,

0:45:160:45:19

just looked at us, went back to the car.

0:45:190:45:21

George held my hand and said,

0:45:210:45:22

"Come on, let's tell them where we were really living."

0:45:220:45:26

He ran up, managed to grab the lad by his trousers,

0:45:280:45:31

dragged the two of them down and showed them

0:45:310:45:34

the shed we lived in.

0:45:340:45:36

They went in, they came out.

0:45:360:45:38

He was crying and she was physically sick.

0:45:390:45:42

And then they went back in the house.

0:45:430:45:45

All hell let loose, shouting and bawling.

0:45:470:45:49

Of course we were worried because we didn't know where the hell

0:45:490:45:52

they were going to put us next.

0:45:520:45:55

But the good thing was they got us the hell out of that place.

0:45:550:45:58

-So you look at this, Jim, beautiful.

-It is.

0:46:020:46:05

Everything I saw was black and white.

0:46:060:46:09

-So there was nothing colourful about the place.

-Aye.

0:46:090:46:12

So I didn't see the colour.

0:46:120:46:13

I spent all my time hating these people.

0:46:150:46:18

What a waste of my time,

0:46:180:46:20

-I'm the only one that's paying for it, not them.

-Aye.

0:46:200:46:22

Yeah, I feel more at peace.

0:46:250:46:27

They're still looking for Tommy.

0:46:420:46:44

Nobody's heard from him since 1980-something.

0:46:440:46:49

And we're still looking for Andrew.

0:46:510:46:53

We want to find Andrew because he's the only one that grew up

0:46:540:46:57

with the mum and dad. He knows what they look like.

0:46:570:47:01

Andrew was last seen in England so we put adverts in the local papers

0:47:030:47:08

to see if somebody would recognise him.

0:47:080:47:10

My name is Andrew Clark.

0:47:210:47:22

I was born on the 24th of December, 1957.

0:47:220:47:26

I am the youngest of 17.

0:47:260:47:28

As far as I was concerned, I had nobody.

0:47:390:47:42

I was on my own down in England.

0:47:420:47:43

-I like your hair.

-Aye, it's a change, isn't it?

0:47:480:47:52

-How are you doing?

-Ian, how you doing? All right.

0:47:520:47:55

'The advert worked.'

0:47:580:47:59

There we go... 'We found Andrew.'

0:47:590:48:02

Ah, there it is, there. 'And today we're going to meet him.'

0:48:020:48:05

Andrew was the only sibling that was brought up

0:48:060:48:09

with the mother and father.

0:48:090:48:11

Take a deep breath now, cos we're getting there.

0:48:250:48:29

Jesus, the butterflies are going now.

0:48:290:48:32

THEY CHAT AMONG THEMSELVES

0:48:490:48:51

Jimmy.

0:48:550:48:57

Hi, Andy.

0:48:570:48:58

Jimmy, my God!

0:48:580:49:01

-Long time no see.

-And you.

0:49:010:49:03

-You've got to be Joan.

-Yes.

-Come here.

0:49:040:49:07

-Aw, it's lovely to see you.

-And you.

0:49:070:49:10

Well, I can remember you.

0:49:100:49:12

-Bernard.

-How you doing?

0:49:130:49:15

I can't remember... Hi.

0:49:150:49:19

Absolutely brilliant. My God.

0:49:190:49:23

I can't remember. And you've got to be Ian.

0:49:230:49:25

-That's it, that's it.

-Lovely.

-Nice to meet you.

-A brother.

0:49:250:49:30

My God.

0:49:300:49:32

Christ. For days I was walking round in a bit of a daze,

0:49:320:49:35

-you know what I mean?

-I can imagine.

0:49:350:49:37

Can I handle this? Am I able...? Do you know what I mean?

0:49:370:49:40

How do you handle something like that?

0:49:410:49:43

Come on. Come on.

0:49:450:49:47

Don't want to brag - I'm the youngest.

0:49:490:49:51

I was basically the same as you.

0:49:530:49:54

It was about two years ago, not even two years ago,

0:49:540:49:57

when I got a knock on the door, basically.

0:49:570:49:59

My head was going like this because it was the whole story.

0:49:590:50:01

After nearly 59 years, to find out you've got brothers and sisters.

0:50:010:50:04

That's what we've all said when we met each other - the missing years.

0:50:040:50:07

We're missing years, and I'm missing brothers and sisters.

0:50:070:50:11

-Aye.

-My dad never spoke about it.

0:50:110:50:13

-Nothing was said? You never...?

-No. No.

0:50:130:50:16

Whether they did that cos I was the youngest and they didn't...

0:50:160:50:18

Shielding me away from it, I don't know.

0:50:180:50:21

But your father was the spitting image of David Niven.

0:50:210:50:24

-Right.

-Small build, and that's...

0:50:240:50:28

He looked, yes, he looked like David Niven.

0:50:280:50:30

-You know what I mean?

-What did the mother look like?

0:50:300:50:32

What did your mother look like?

0:50:320:50:34

I have got the only photograph.

0:50:340:50:36

-With you?

-You're kidding on.

-She looked like Mary?

0:50:360:50:38

-Did she have red hair?

-That's Mum and me.

0:50:400:50:42

Good God.

0:50:450:50:47

I would think that was in Greenock.

0:50:470:50:48

That's a cracker.

0:50:480:50:49

That's unbelievable.

0:50:520:50:54

I've kept... I've had that for years.

0:50:590:51:01

Well, I didn't know about my mother going to prison.

0:51:030:51:06

Bloody hell.

0:51:080:51:09

What was going on?

0:51:090:51:11

To learn now that all this went on previously is absolutely horrendous.

0:51:110:51:16

Some of the stories were horrific.

0:51:160:51:18

-Absolutely horrific.

-We were just torn apart and thrown over Scotland,

0:51:180:51:23

and nobody was told anything about anybody.

0:51:230:51:26

But social services put you people into care - must've had records.

0:51:260:51:30

-They must've had the information.

-They held them back,

0:51:300:51:33

they held all the information back.

0:51:330:51:34

See, that's totally wrong.

0:51:340:51:35

The authorities weren't interested in giving you any of that information.

0:51:350:51:39

It's such a sad story, such a horrible story,

0:51:390:51:42

but it's got the happy ending, because here we're all sitting now.

0:51:420:51:44

-We're here.

-We are here.

-That's right.

-We're here.

0:51:440:51:46

I think, after all the years, it's amazing,

0:51:460:51:48

the work that you've gone through, George has gone through,

0:51:480:51:51

and suddenly we're here.

0:51:510:51:53

-Aye.

-It's a weird feeling.

0:51:530:51:56

-Oh, it is.

-Cos I thought I was on my own.

0:51:560:51:58

But suddenly now I've got family.

0:51:580:52:00

But, eh, I'm here.

0:52:020:52:04

Oh, aye.

0:52:040:52:05

I nearly walked out, to be honest with you.

0:52:080:52:10

I had to bite my lip.

0:52:100:52:12

I thought, "I'm here, I've got to do this.

0:52:120:52:14

"This has got... Once-in-a-lifetime.

0:52:140:52:16

"It's got to be their Andy, hold yourself together,

0:52:160:52:18

"and get in there."

0:52:180:52:21

Definitely a big shock.

0:52:210:52:23

But to learn...

0:52:240:52:26

..what they've gone through is absolutely unbelievable.

0:52:280:52:32

-This is Greenock, eh?

-Aye.

0:52:320:52:33

It's as though there's lights everywhere, you know?

0:52:330:52:36

It's weird, it is. It's weird, aye.

0:52:380:52:40

I've got to say I've had a lot of bad days in my life,

0:52:400:52:44

and I've had a lot of good days, but this is one of the best.

0:52:440:52:48

Put it that way.

0:52:480:52:49

The picture that Andrew's got, she's really smart,

0:52:550:52:58

and wee Andrew, standing beside her.

0:52:580:53:00

She's now human. She is actually a person.

0:53:020:53:04

When Andrew was about three years old, the mum and dad moved to Dundee,

0:53:060:53:11

and that's where they stayed for the rest of their lives.

0:53:110:53:15

That's Andrew that's with her, and he's, what, two, three years old?

0:53:160:53:21

So you're talking about a few years after we were taken into care,

0:53:210:53:24

and if my mother had been as bad as what the newspaper reports made her

0:53:240:53:29

out to be, she certainly wouldn't have looked like that.

0:53:290:53:32

We still don't know what the father looks like,

0:53:400:53:43

but we have a picture of my mother, and she's quite a lady.

0:53:430:53:47

How's things, Charlie?

0:53:570:54:00

'The last couple of days to me has been one hell of an eye-opener.

0:54:000:54:05

'It has been overwhelming, and it's still...'

0:54:050:54:10

I'm still numb a bit.

0:54:100:54:12

I didn't get a chance to meet Andy at the reunion,

0:54:140:54:17

but I got an opportunity to meet Andy the next day when we

0:54:170:54:21

brought the whole family together, and that was fantastic.

0:54:210:54:24

-In for a big hug...

-Aye.

0:54:250:54:27

He's down there - that's him. Well, we'll introduce you, then.

0:54:270:54:30

Aye. There you go.

0:54:300:54:31

-You OK?

-I'm fine, aye.

0:54:310:54:33

-This is Ian.

-Ian.

0:54:330:54:35

-Pleased to meet you.

-And you.

0:54:350:54:37

I've waited a long time for this.

0:54:370:54:40

I only knew about you two years ago.

0:54:400:54:43

What a joy to meet him on the Sunday, what a joy.

0:54:430:54:46

What a gentleman.

0:54:460:54:48

And that's when I lost it.

0:54:480:54:50

Come here.

0:54:510:54:53

Oh, dear.

0:54:540:54:56

I'm glad we've got you.

0:54:560:54:58

That's the main thing, eh?

0:54:590:55:01

-That's the main thing.

-I'm glad you're here.

0:55:010:55:04

I don't usually come to tears, but I can't help it.

0:55:040:55:06

It's just knowing that finally we're all together.

0:55:090:55:14

Everybody feels apprehensive

0:55:140:55:16

when they go to meet folk that they don't know,

0:55:160:55:18

but there is a connection there, and the connection is the blood.

0:55:180:55:22

Aye. Oh, dear.

0:55:220:55:24

When you get all the aunties, the uncles, the cousins, the nieces,

0:55:270:55:32

the nephews, you get everybody together -

0:55:320:55:35

we're one heck of a size of a family.

0:55:350:55:37

That's Michael, look.

0:55:370:55:39

-Where?

-Michael. Wave.

0:55:390:55:40

Still got the blond hair?

0:55:410:55:43

-Ah, still got the blond hair.

-Do you know what I mean, aye?

0:55:430:55:47

Hi, everybody, I'm going to tell you a wee story.

0:55:470:55:51

I think we'll need to really go back.

0:55:510:55:54

Two people got together.

0:55:540:55:56

A William Clark meets a wee lassie called Elizabeth.

0:55:560:56:01

These two got married in 1935.

0:56:010:56:05

The result is you lot.

0:56:050:56:06

Today I want to dedicate this family gathering to a miracle worker...

0:56:190:56:24

..and his name was George.

0:56:250:56:27

I still cry when I think about him, because he's done so much,

0:56:350:56:41

and the sadness is he's no' here...

0:56:410:56:43

..any more.

0:56:450:56:46

This is what he wanted - he wanted to find everybody.

0:56:490:56:53

We'll have a good toast, then, to the one who caused it all.

0:56:550:56:58

Let's all have a good, big cheer to George.

0:56:580:57:01

-That's right.

-To George!

0:57:010:57:02

ALL: To George.

0:57:020:57:04

There's a bit of sadness, too, that he hasn't found Tommy.

0:57:090:57:12

Yeah, it's a pity we could never find Tommy.

0:57:160:57:18

But you never know. Maybe one day we'll get a phone call.

0:57:180:57:21

Let's hope.

0:57:210:57:23

Suddenly, I've got family.

0:57:240:57:27

I've got brothers and sisters that I never knew existed.

0:57:270:57:30

I was down in England on my own, thinking that was going to be it.

0:57:300:57:34

But now I'm here. I always wanted to come back to Scotland,

0:57:340:57:37

always said, when I was 60, I'd come back to Scotland,

0:57:370:57:41

but now I'm definitely coming back.

0:57:410:57:43

I have family.

0:57:430:57:44

I think you've just got to look round the family and see, you know,

0:57:500:57:52

they've all done well for themselves,

0:57:520:57:55

considering the problems we've all had.

0:57:550:57:57

They split our family up completely,

0:57:590:58:03

and to isolate them from each other -

0:58:030:58:05

it should never, ever happen to anybody.

0:58:050:58:08

What kind of life would I have had if we'd have all stayed together?

0:58:080:58:12

Would things have turned out better?

0:58:120:58:14

Who knows?

0:58:140:58:16

But we never had the chance.

0:58:160:58:18

I learned - just remember the good things.

0:58:220:58:26

The bad things only pull you down.

0:58:260:58:28

And with meeting all these wonderful people that I never knew,

0:58:300:58:34

has raised me up.

0:58:340:58:36

Mm-hm.

0:58:360:58:37

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