Merritt woman searching for long lost sister born in Kamloops

KAMLOOPS – Terri Beckett grew up always having cousins she could play with — the same people her two daughters now refer to as aunts and uncles — but she always wanted a sibling.

When she was 15 she found out her mother did actually have another child, her baby sister, but had given her up for adoption.

“I was two years old when she was born,” Beckett says. “She was given up for adoption right away."

All Beckett remembers about her sister’s existence is joining others to drop her pregnant mother off at Kamloops' Royal Inland Hospital and picking her up again.

“My mom didn’t get to name her, she didn’t get to hold her,” Beckett says, adding her mother remembers only small details like the baby girl had very dark hair and eyes.

Since finding out about her sister, Beckett has done everything to try and find her and now hopes the magic of social media can help her out.

"I belong to absolutely every adoption registry in Canada that I can belong to. I’ve joined numerous Facebook pages and written posts about it,” she says.

Beckett’s last post was picked up and shared more than 2,800 times across the country and the United States.

“I’m absolutely blown away,” she says.

It’s been a challenge to find her long lost sibling though. Beckett, who now lives in Merritt, has no identifying information, no pictures and doesn’t know the adoptive family. She’s going on small tips she’s received along the way.

So far, all Beckett trusts to be sound information is from a family member who says her sister was adopted by an Italian family from either Cache Creek or Ashcroft and was named Joy. She knows her sibling is First Nations and would be 35 years old.

“I’ve been making sure I’m part of Cache Creek and Ashcroft groups online,” she says. “I’m just really antsy and checking Facebook like mad."

While she knows there is potential her sister doesn’t want to reunite with biological family members, Beckett says all she wants is closure.

"I just want to know what the answer is, whether it's ‘I’ve been looking for you too' or 'I don’t want anything to do with you.’"

If you have any information which could help Beckett, contact her by emailing terribeckett@hotmail.com or calling either 250-378-0915 or 250-378-0929.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Glynn Brothen at gbrothen@infonews.ca, or call 250-319-7494. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.