Bonnie & I went to see the movie "Philomena" staring Dame Judi Dench and Steve Coogan yesterday at the Park. It had excellent, well deserved, reviews.
It was based on the true story of Philomena Lee as told in the book "The Lost Child of Philomena Lee" by Martin Sixsmith.
It tells the story from the perspective of the older Philomena Lee with in flashbacks to her youth, when as an unmarried young woman she was placed into Roscrea, an Catholic convent in Ireland which "specialized" in taking in these women in need, helping them with the birth of their babies, and then finding adopted homes for them, in this case with Catholic families in the US.
She spent 50 years looking for her son, Anthony Lee, and with the help of Martin Sixsmith, a former journalist and former investigative reporter, traced him to Washington DC. They discovered that he had been renamed "Michael Hess" by his adoptive family and had worked in the Reagan administration. Unfortunately, Michael had died of AIDS but Martin was able to track down Michael's former partner, Peter, who met with them to talk about Michael and to show them a video.
This video revealed that Michael had gone back twice over the years as an adult to the convent n Ireland seeking information about his birth mother, which the nuns refused to give to him. Little knowing that his mother and her new family lived not far away.
Michael chose to be buried at Roscrea in the hopes his birth mother would some day find him, which of course she did many years after his death. His grave site:
A very powerful and moving movie revealing the many injustices inflicted on unwed mothers at that time. I do recommend seeing it.
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