Beulah Home: a Happy story

I was born at Beulah home in 1947. My birthmother had a family emergency soon after I was born and left the home before she signed adoption papers. So I was kept in the home until Alberta Social Services took legal custody of me at the age of 6 months. I was adopted by Canadians living in the United States. Social services had records on me because no private adoption papers were signed. In 1996, at the age of 49, I finally tracked down my birthmother in the Turks & Caicos Islands in the Caribbean. We visit back and forth every year or so and have a wonderful relationship. I discovered that I have a half brother in Ottawa ON and we have a lot in common. I have been a probation officer most of my life and he has been on probation most of his life! I have returned to Graduate School and will be graduating with a Master of Divinity from ACTS Seminary next month. My adoptive parents are both deceased. But my real mom is coming out for my Graduation ceremony. Five years after I was born my adoptive parents returned to Edmonton and were regularly involved with Beulah Home, which was a faith ministry of the Mennonite Brethren in Christ Church. Every Thursday they would pay their bills. It began with a prayer meeting asking for divine help and by the end of the day funds would come in: mostly from churches, but the Edmonton Rotary club was the main benefactor. I regularly visited Beulah home at the age of 6 and wondered why all those ladies had such bulging tummies. Mary Findlay (the widow of a missionary to Africa) was the director, and Enith Hunsberger was the accountant. Margrit Lee from the New Hebrides was the midwife and Reuben Ratzlaff was the custodian. I have kept in touch with all of them over the years, but they are all now gone to their reward. Beulah Home was taken over by the Alberta Ministry of Social Services in 1967 and the facility destroyed. After I met my birthmother in 1996, I visited Enith Hunsberger in her old folks home in Carstairs Alberta. She was 94 and sharp as a tack. She said Mrs. Findlay was from the old school and she was opposed to connecting children with their birth parents. However, Miss Hunsberger had been in the old folks home for over 10 years and had been contacted by many children seeking mothers and many mothers seeking children. She said mine was the first happy story she had heard. I have contacted the archivist of the Evangelical Missionary Church (the same denomination as the Mennonite Brethren in Christ who founded Beulah home in 1912) I will soon have a copy of the history of Beulah home and I will scan it and create a website. Here is an interesting story that you might enjoy: ------------------------------------------------------- -- Harold B gives the following Beulah Home story that I thought you might appreciate. From the autobiography of Harold B who was one of the early pastors who opened churches in the bush, 1935 to 1940. That fall we had applied to adopt a child as the doctor questioned if Lucille could ever have a child. Thus it was I guess in November we got a call to come to Edmonton, to the Beulah Home where a wee baby was available. We went immediately, but when we got there the mother had decided to keep the baby. Mrs. Findley said they were receiving another eight month old child from Calgary on the night train. She had been out for adoption in a home there, but the authorities took her away because of conditions. We did not think we would be interested in a child that old, however after breakfast in the morning the little girl was brought to us. She was just screaming in the arms of the nurse, who was all in white uniform. She handed the child to Lucille and she just snuggled up and quit crying at once. Then I took her and she just hung on for dear life. When we handed her back she began to scream again. The answer was very simple. That night we were back at the shack with a little girl and her name was Lucille Phyllis B. We had a daughter. Barry Neufeld ocoi@telus.net