‘Was this all my fault?’: Lemn Sissay's painful yet hope-filled memoir

Lemn Sissay, one of our best-loved poets, was fostered as a baby. Now he’s written a lyrical memoir describing his experiences

Lemn Sissay, poet, performer and chancellor at the University of Manchester, was born in Billings Hospital near St Margaret’s House for pregnant unmarried girls and women in Wigan, Greater Manchester, to an Ethiopian student on 21 May 1967. His mother refused to sign the adoption papers. She wanted her child to be fostered while she studied. The social worker handed Lemn to foster parents and declared his name “Norman”. The foster parents, Catherine and David Greenwood, went on to have three children of their own. At 12, Norman was sent away to children’s homes. After a succession of institutions, he left the care system, alone, and requested his files via “customer services”. They refused. After a 31-year campaign he received them in 2015. The last entry is his letter requesting to see them, at 18. His shattering, light-searching memoir, My Name Is Why, is the result. Here is an extract from the book…

Mum smelled like mums smell; there must be a smell a child is attuned to from being a baby, a cross between baby powder and witch hazel. I don’t believe an adopted baby gets any less love from their parents than a child naturally born to them. For ever, for ages, until the end came, no matter how volatile the day had been, I’d pray she’d open the bedroom door before I slept, I’d pray she’d sit on the edge of my bed and sing me to sleep as she did when I was younger. “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy, when skies are grey.” I believed her.

Continue reading...

from Children | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2HkpVyU