A mum-of-four is appealing for help to find the birth father she has never met – and who may not even know of her existence.
Gemma Taylor, 29, was told that her dad was a builder from the Dagenham area but has little other information to go on.
Her mother, Janet, has told her that his name was Chris, he had long blonde hair and was about 30 years old when they met in a pub, possibly called The Queen’s Hotel, near Westcliffe station in Southend in 1985.
She thinks Chris, who drove a red pick-up truck and was with a friend called Dave, was working in Hamlet Court Road, Westcliffe.
“The hardest part is that he doesn’t know I exist,” said Gemma. “I could have a whole other family I don’t know about.
“Maybe if he knew I was about he would have tried to look for me. If I don’t look it’s never going to happen.”
Following their time together Chris called her mum, then known as Janet Mead, several times times and invited her to a party in Canning Town.
Nervous of travelling alone her mother declined and six weeks later when she learned she was pregnant she had no way of contacting him to tell him.
“She tried to make contact but it was even more limited then,” Gemma explained. “She’s always being strong minded so she had no choice she had to go on with it.”
Over the years Gemma has tried searches using The Salvation Army, social media and ancestry websites but the lack of a surname has hampered any success.
Her mum remarried in 2000 and Gemma got on well with her step-dad David Taylor who passed away in 2005.
She has four older siblings who know both of their parents which she says has made her feel the absence of a biological father all the more acutely.
“He [my dad] is what makes me who I am in a lot of ways,” she said.
“I am quite like my mum but I don’t look like her – I think I look like my dad to be honest. My brother and sister laugh because I am the only blonde one.
Gemma says her search is motivated simply by the need to complete her sense of identity.
“I know he could have his own family and I would understand but I would at least know a surname,” she said.
“It has always been a long shot but it only needs one person to remember something.”
Do you know who Gemma’s dad is? Call Catherine on 020 8477 3879 or email catherine.lund@archant.co.uk
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