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Churchill’s Granddaughter–Author Interview

by Laura on May 29th, 2013

This one’s for all my adoptee friends in a fuster cluck search …

Good advice for adoptees facing a long, arduous, frustrating search. … If you want to know your truth, then beyond a doubt you simply must keep going.

Winston Churchill and his adopted-out granddaughter, Rhonda Noonan have a lot in common–both had no tolerance for those who would stand in their way, and they knew the importance of staning in their truth.

In yesterday’s How Adoption Created an American Churchill, Rhonda Noonan and I discussed the secondary rejection she experienced at the hands of her birth mother. But as we learned, Rhonda possesses not only adoptee resilience, but a true-to-Churchill-biology drive for the truth.

 She also looks like her famous grandfather!

We may not understand it completely …

Another thing granddad and grandkid share: a belief in things not seen or easily understood.

Rhonda – Interestingly, when my grandfather was a teenager, he told a friend about his dreams and his ability to “see far, far into the future.”

He went on to say that there would be wars like had never been seen before and that London would be threatened. He told his friend that he would be key in saving London and the Empire.

In another instance, when he was an old man, he told the family of conversation with his long-deceased father, Lord Randolph, who had appeared to him as Winston painted a picture of his father. They had conversation about events that had transpired in the world after Lord Randolph’s death, including the fact that my grandfather had been the savior of the country and Prime Minister twice.

It seems that believing in things that are a bit unexplainable is genetic!

Very little of what happened in my journey is explainable by me. I have remained as amazed and perplexed as anyone else. Lillie’s gift didn’t seem so “odd” to me, really; at least initially. I had heard about people who could “see” things. Now, I will admit that her accuracy astounded me many times, but I just figured she was very, very good at what she did!

Once I moved to Colorado, however, and listened to Monica [another medium] repeat, verbatim, what Lillie had told me, I felt a bit like a puppet in a grand show; as though my every move was being orchestrated by the universe somehow.

And, as far as Lillie being there (to this day, any time I speak with Monica), and how that all happened … I have no clue. Of course, many times folks are fearful when they can’t explain something. But, as my grandpa once commented, the simple fact that something is not understood should not mean that minds are closed to it.

Open Records & Adoption Advocacy

Laura – Okay, not everyone was adopted out of a famous family, not everyone’s adoption involved heads of state, the CIA and the FBI. Very true. But, you spent decades researching, interviewing, tracking down leads. No matter who your first family was, finding the truth was always the imperative.

There are scenes in your memoir in which some government bureaucrat is literally sitting across the table from you, holding in her hands the real, original (but possibly not accurate) paperwork. It takes all of your personal restraint not to snatch the file and hightail it outta there.

One of the very important areas of adoption advocacy is the issue of open records, and access to medical history information, both of which are legislated at the state level. What are the top issues that open record advocates should be fighting for?

Rhonda – Adoptees deserve the whole truth. Period. Not just a birth certificate. Not just medical records. The whole story.

They experienced it and continue to live with the residual impact – whatever that might be – and deserve to have the “explanation” of their feelings; their story.

As a therapist, I know that we all “hold” our experiences in the very fabric of who we are. We don’t remember them, cognitively, but that doesn’t change their impact on us. One of the greatest gifts an adoptee can receive is the truth about what happened. So, many advocates say “well, let’s just ask for this first…” or that, first; because that’s “all we can get right now.” Maybe that’s true in some cases, but it goes against all of my DNA.

Why not educate around the truth that every human being should have the right to know who they are and where they come from, and that no other person, agency, or government institution should ever have the right to hide events or people who have shared DNA or played a part in impacting that adoptee?

Do we need to advocate for original birth certificates? Of course.

Medical records? Certainly.

But that is not the whole story, nor the most important point. We deserve to know who we are because it is our God-given, sacred right to know. It is that simple.

*  *  *  *  *

Thanks, Rhonda!

Rhonda Noonan earned an Associate’s degree from Northern Oklahoma College, and Bachelors and Masters degrees from Northeastern State University, Tahlequah, Oklahoma.

Her career in mental health spans almost thirty years and includes stints as the Director of Clinical Services at five inpatient psychiatric facilities in Oklahoma and Colorado. She has spent much of her career working with adoptees and their families.

Find The Fifth and Final Name, Memoir of an American Churchill on Amazon.

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 “The Wall” by dan from freedigitalphotos.net

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5 Comments
  1. Hi Rhonda,

    I enjoyed reading your beautiful post. I will definitely be purchasing your memoir.

    Nothing stood in the way of those irresistible urges to snoop inside of my mother's mosaic mother-of-pearl Syrian jewelry box that dogged my past, and returned to haunt me. I wholeheartedly agree with you that we should always hear the whole truth, nothing but. Although we are not able to remember the details, we know that we are different. In my case, I felt that I didn't fit in. And, yes, nothing was going to stand in my way of knowing my truth. You can bet that I asked so many questions with responses such as "You ask too many Questions" "You're so sensitive."

    It is my goal to help other adoptees or late discovery adoptees who might struggle with their past or have identity issues. I only wish that another person had held out their hand and said, "I've been through what you're going through, let me help."

    Thank you for sharing.

    Fondly,

    Carina

    • Hi, Carina!

      Sadly, the tendency of those who do not understand, is to assume there is something wrong with the adoptee. I believe quite the reverse…that there is something wrong with not caring about the truth; not searching for it or embracing it. THAT is pathological and evidence of the damaging impact of adoption. Hurrah that you demanded your truth!! It does set us free!

      Best to you! Rhonda

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