Harvey Shackell was just a few hours old when he was found in a cardboard box, wrapped in brown wrapping paper outside a house in Middlesex, UK. And this on Christmas Eve.
A young couple lived in the house and the housewife, Vera Woods, was understandably shocked when she came across a box with a newborn just next to the front door. Naturally, Vera immediately called the police and the little boy was immediately taken to hospital. He quickly recovered and was taken in by a family, the Shackell family, who later adopted him.
Sixteen half-siblings
Harvey recently appeared on the UK show Long Lost Family: Born Without Trace, which helps people trace their origins and biological parents. The show’s researchers then discovered, using DNA technology, that Harvey had two full sisters and no less than sixteen half-siblings, all on the paternal side.
Havey, now 63, is married and has two stepchildren but no biological parents – to his knowledge. He had a good childhood with loving parents, but over the years Harvey began to question his origins more and more.
So he decided to place an ad in all the major newspapers in Britain, but without success. Harvey had grown quite discouraged when he thought of looking at the only place that had anything to do with his childhood; the house where he was found on the steps of.
“If the woman who lived there hadn’t saved me, I would have frozen to death that night,” Harvey said on the show.
But again, Harvey was disappointed as the Woods had moved a long time ago and the current owners had no idea what had become of them.
Torn from his mother’s arms
Guardians of the Long Lost family discovered Harvey’s search, and in the episode he met his older sister, Cherry, for the first time. None of them could say a word before crying.
Just before the siblings met, Cheryl said she always wanted a sibling. “Harvey deserves peace of mind. I think it must have been very difficult for him.”
Harvey and cherry
When they met, Cherry told Harvey that their father had snatched him as a newborn from the arms of his screaming mother, who was beside herself with grief, and ran away with her. him. His father came home without the child and forbade the boy to be mentioned again.
“I’m so sorry,” Cherry tearfully told her brother on the show, but Harvey was quick to pick her up and tell her it was never her fault. “I don’t hold any grudges against you or anyone in the family. It was our dad who was a bad guy, it was his fault.”
Cry like a baby
Cherry told Harvey that their mother Selug was just 23 when she gave birth to Harvey, her third child with her 45-year-old husband, a known abuser. Cherry said their mother had been extremely afraid of him and had always held out hope that her husband would have taken the child to a safe place near a hospital or orphanage.
Harvey said the search process was difficult for him and when he found out he would be meeting his sister, he sat up and cried like a baby.
Cherry said she especially wished that their mother, Sálug, had been able to experience the moment of seeing the siblings meet. “She would have loved to be here. She was sorry after he took you away and never got to talk about it until he died.”
Understandably, Harvey was shocked to learn of his father’s actions, that he snatched the newborn Harvey from his crying mother’s arms with such cruelty.
After meeting Cherry, Harvey said he felt a great sense of relief, but that feeling was strange. She’s wonderful and I can’t believe how much alike we are. Cherry added that Harvey was a wonderful man and their mother would have been extremely proud of him.
Harvey’s own sister declined to appear on the show and prefers to remain anonymous.
Be
Cherry said the siblings’ father had many relationships with another number of women and fathered nineteen children in total. Some were placed in orphanages, while others were adopted at birth. Later in the episode, Harvey had video calls with some of his half-siblings, and they were all excited to bond with each other.
But there was more to the show that surprised Harvey because the show hosts introduced Vera Wood, the woman who found him in the box, brought him in from the cold, wrapped him in a blanket and called for help. And thus saved his life.
Vera, who is now 88 years old. had never forgotten the Christmas child on the steps and even appeared on television in 1988 where she asked for information about what had happened to the boy.
On the show, Vera Harvey said she and her husband tried to get information about what happened to the child after the ambulance chased him away, but no one would tell them. The couple had decided from the second they saw him in the box that they never wanted to let him go, but to adopt him. But neither the hospital, nor the police, nor the child protection authorities would give them any information about the child, and they were simply told not to talk about it anymore.
Harvey and Vera
you were freezing
But Vera never forgot the little boy and over the years she tried unsuccessfully to look for the Christmas baby. Until the people in charge of the show contacted her.
There have been many happy encounters with Harvey and Vera. “I’ve thought of you so many times, even though I didn’t even know your name.” You saved my life,” Harvey said in tears, hugging Vera.
Vera recalled that fateful moment in the series. “I opened the box and there was a brown cardboard on something. I removed the cardboard and there you were at the bottom of this thin cardboard box with only a thin piece of paper under you and a blue sweater from woman on you. And on top of that, there was more paper.
You had no hat, mittens or socks. Nothing. You were naked. I pulled you out of the box, you were freezing and wrapped you in a blanket and called the police.”
Harvey asked if Vera thought he had been on the steps all night, and Vera said she was sure because he was completely cold the whole time.
Harvey had a good childhood.
Can die with peace in my heart
“I really wanted to keep you,” Vera said with tears in her eyes. I looked for you for so long, I thought of you so often. My little boy. Where should he be now? Is he okay? Has he found a good home? How did he become an adult? But all the doors were closed to me.”
Harvey comforted Vera by telling her that he had a wonderful childhood with good parents.
And Vera gave Harvey a photo she took that day with him in her arms. But they want to keep it to themselves.
“Now I can die with peace in my heart, knowing that you had a good childhood and that you are happy,” Vera said at the end, hugging Harvey.
The siblings have decided to meet and get to know each other in the days and weeks to come.
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