Reuniting with my birth mother was far from a fairytale

One morning in late September 2023 I discovered by chance that my birth mother had been killed almost a year earlier. The revelation came from an unopened Google-alert email flagged for her name, Susan Barras, found in my work email bin. We had been estranged for almost 15 years; I had cut contact when the relationship became too fraught.

Learning she was dead also meant both my birth parents were gone; my birth father had died of liver failure in late 2018, aged 70. A probate notice listed an unfamiliar name, Suzann Doyle, and an address for a tiny one-bed retirement flat overlooking Guildford train station rather than the large detached house I had visited.

A solicitor eventually told me she had been hit by a car in late November 2022 and died hours later in hospital. He said her two adult stepchildren had been informed but not her younger sister; Susan left her estate to charity and, it seemed, had been estranged from much of her family.

birth mother, susan barras, probate notice, guildford, retirement flat, stepchildren, estate, solicitor, google alert, estranged family