Ethel Brown, 29, searching for her mother. - contributed

Jonique Gaynor, Staff Reporter

Ethel Brown was raised by complete strangers after her parents abandoned her when she was just a few months old.

Though some would expect her to be bitter, Brown is not angry and instead, is determined to continue her eight-year search for her parents. In 1999, Brown went public, bringing her story to newspapers and radio stations. Though her efforts to reconnect with her parents were unsuccessful, she was not fazed and decided to renew her efforts. She told THE STAR, "I am not angry with her, I just want to talk to her and tell her about growing up."

Much of what she knows about her parents was told to her by the couple who raised her - a 'science man' and his wife. She told THE STAR the story she had heard all her life : "Dem tell mi that mi mother and father did come look for the science man because mi mother did sick.

She soon come back

Im tell her that is pregnant she pregnant. Dem seh six months time she come back with me as a baby and ask dem fi watch mi cause she soon come back." This was 29 years ago and Ethel's mother has still not returned.

Good life

Though she had a good life, she admits that a part of her always wondered about her parents. "Mi jus would like to know them. Just to have a mother you can talk to or fi find out if mi have a likkle brother or sister, mi want fi mek dem know seh dem have a big sister." Ethel says the woman who raised her is aware that she is searching and has provided encouragement. "She seh mi mus go ahead and look", she said.

Brown was born on September 23, 1977 and gives her parents' names as Marcia Anderson and Jimmy Wilson. She was told that her parents were from Hanover, and that she had an aunt who once sold in the market in downtown, Kingston.

Now a mother of two, a 4-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son, Ethel is even more determined to meet her parents. She said, "I just want them to know dem relatives. Mi a 29 now, mi woulda just like fi see dem and talk to them and mek dem know dem have two grandchildren. Mi just want siddung and talk as mother and daughter. Mi get over di past."