You Named Me Sheree

I invite you to follow my journey as I share my life experience as a birth mother. At the age of seventeen, I was an Australian champion figure roller skater raised in Inala, in a housing commission, a low socioeconomic area in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. I was young, ambitious, and had plans for my life. My parents did not make me adopt out my baby girl; it was entirely my decision. As days, weeks, months, and years went on, it was taboo to speak about her birth, and my mother encouraged me never to talk about her for eighteen years. One bright sunny day, I received a phone call from a girl asking if I was her mother. As I had never told anyone about her before, I knew it couldn’t be a prank. So I asked, “What did I name you?” Her response was “You named me Sheree.”