ÐÓ°ÉÐÔ°É

Do you know the parents of Annmarine Angela Briscoe? The 35-year-old St James resident says she has spent years searching for her mother, Verona Merchant, without much success.

Briscoe told THE STAR that she knows very little about herself and relies on what she was told at the several girls' homes where she grew up. She stated that she only recently got some information about her mother from her birth certificate.

"I was told that my mother gave birth to me when she was only 12 years old, and that is what I saw on my birth certificate when I got it years later. When I was younger, I had an auntie who used to carry me to her home in Portland, but mi did really small, so mi don't remember where she lived. On my birth certificate, it stated that my mother is from Spring Bank in Portland," she said.

She added that information about her father has been very sketchy and that he goes by the name Uton or Everton Briscoe. AnnMarine was born at the Port Antonio Hospital on January 30, 1984.

Left home prematurely

Briscoe said the last home that she stayed at was Windsor Girls' Home in St Ann but that she left the institution prematurely.

"One day mi follow friend and leave the home without permission and go beach and some guys with guns tek wi whe and have we at a house in St Ann. There was this man who used to come by the gate of the girls' home, and he found out we had the same last name and he used to always joke that we were family. When he heard that we were kidnapped, he told the men that I was related to him and they gave me over to him. He gave me a room and raised me like his own child for years. He passed away after, though," she said.

The mother of two says that her life feels incomplete and that she wants to know her 'true identity'.

"I don't want anything at all from them. I just want some form of closure. It was very difficult growing up and not really knowing who I was. I was treated really good at all the girls' homes that I was in, but I somehow did not feel fulfilled because I don't know who I really am. I don't know if I have any brothers or sisters or anything. It is really hard talking about it sometimes ... . I cry a lot," she said.