Muriel’s Mom, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @Brianrrs37 on Twitter)

For 42 years
As the script went
Iris kept from Muriel
Her daughter’s adoption

Thrust into confusion
Suddenly
Muriel had lost
Her identity

That wanting to know
Burns from within
Who really gave birth to you
And do you have other kin?

In real life
I was adopted too
The mystery haunted me
I desperately wanted to

Find my biological family
And finally did
Not much in common
I found with them

I got answers
Far from home
But the truth was closer
With my adoptive mom

She had raised me
And gave me the love
Always my support
When push came to shove

There is a yearning
To fill in the gaps
To find your origins
Dig into your past

DNA
Is only one bond
I had one stronger
In my adoptive mom
(end)

This poem is about one episode of the sitcom “Too Close For Comfort” in which Muriel is told by her mother she is adopted. I can identify because am adopted as well.

This episode hits close to to home to me because I could see the concern on my adoptive mom’s face when, as an adult I told her I wanted to find my biological family. I had to remind her that I would never stop loving her or leave her. I think my mom’s real concern looking back at it now, wasn’t her, but what she thought I might find.

As it turned out in reality, I did meet my biological family, and we have nothing in common. Now while my adoptive mom and I had different personalities, politics and neatness levels of living, we did have a deep understanding of each other and because I was raised with her, we had a strong bond, even with our different personalities.

Point is, while some people who are adopted can find their biological family and do get along with them after finding them, some don’t and that was the case with me.

But the most important theme in this episode as the overall plot goes, was the bond between the adoptive parent and the adopted child. I can tell you it is as strong as any long term relationship because of the time and effort put into it.

Watching this rerun today really struck a cord with me, and made me love and appreciate my late adoptive mom even more. I miss you Mom.