Adoptee’s search for family starts in Nipawin but ends in Manitoba

That was all the information she had at the time.

“In those days adoptions were pretty private and they were pretty protective of people who were putting children up for adoption,” Haeberle explained.

In 1995, she joined a group called Parent Finders in Alberta, a database that matched adoptees and birth parents.

Told it could take months or years to make a match, she didn’t expect much but two weeks later got a call that they had found a match.

“That was a pretty big deal in my life. It was pretty interesting,” she said. “It was very emotionally overwhelming, to be honest.”

Haeberle was able to meet her birth mother — who grew up in the Fairview area — and other members of her maternal family including two half-sisters along with aunts and uncles.

“I think most adoptees can relate to there’s always this sense of who am I, who are my people, where did I come from? I had those feelings my entire life and always felt there was a piece missing,” she said.

Amongst the strengths and weaknesses that come with all families, Haeberle made two strong connections that she treasures to this day.

One was gaining an aunt who now lives down the road from her and the other was a figure she did not have growing up, a grandfather.

“He was an amazing man and we connected immediately, and it was like I had known him my whole life. And I was able to meet an aunt that we also connected immediately,” she said.

Her birth mother is now deceased and a little while ago following the loss of her adoptive father and her husband, Haeberle decided to look for her birth father and made a post to that effect on her personal Facebook page.

She had some hesitancy because she didn’t want to disrupt his life, especially since she did not know if he had told his family he had a child that was adopted.

Her birth mother had confirmed the basic facts about her father’s age and physical characteristics, had told her he was from the Nipawin/Carrot River area and his name was Brian Johnson. He had an injured arm from an old accident.

It took 48 hours for Sherry Haeberle to find her biological father after posting on Facebook.(Sherry Haeberle/Facebook)

In true social media style, the post caught like wildfire and within hours people were offering to drive to the farm of Brian Johnson in Whitefox, just a five-minute drive away.

At the same time, a man in California saw the post and messaged her saying he had worked with a Brian Johnson that would be the right age, was Icelandic, had the right hair and eye color and an injured arm.

He was also from Grand Rapids, Manitoba and not Nipawin, Sask.

Several years ago, Haeberle’s daughter did a DNA test and was registered in the Ancestry database. When she heard her mother’s updated story she checked and found a match to Brian Johnson’s sister in Manitoba.

Johnson died in 2005, followed by one of his two sons, but Haeberle has been messaging with her other half-brother.

“I’m sad that I’ll never get the chance to meet him, but I’m very excited that I have a brother,” she said.

One thing Haeberle knows is that he was a “pretty decent human being” and had offered to marry her birth mother when he knew she was expecting but she refused.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com

by Susan McNeil

Adoptee’s search for family starts in Nipawin but ends in Manitoba

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