Shannon Leet from Ontario planned to visit the graves of her ancestors during her trip to Northern Ireland. Her mother, Moya, had moved to Canada from Omagh in County Tyrone during the early 1960s when she was 17. Shannon posted an appeal on a local Facebook group about her family’s history and received a message from a stranger in Londonderry saying, “Shannon, I am your mammy’s little boy”. Billy Scampton, the unknown man, was born in 1962 at Daisy Hill Hospital in Newry. He was forced to give up for adoption by his family due to being born out of wedlock. Billy was adopted by Ben and Vera Scampton from Derry and after the deaths of his adoptive parents, he began the search for his biological mother.
Billy soon sent a message to Shannon asking what she knew about her mother’s time in Ireland. From this, he gathered that Shannon’s mother had given birth to a baby boy and was forced to give him up for adoption before she moved to Canada. After phone calls and video chats, the siblings discovered that they have another brother named David, who lives in Canada as well. They subsequently met in Dublin and visited their mother’s family home in Omagh. They also scattered some of her ashes in the River Strule in Omagh.
Billy never got to meet his biological mother, who developed dementia before she passed away in 2019. However, Shannon stated that Moya was “a special lady” and had some mental health issues during her lifetime. Shannon believes that Moya would be overjoyed to know that her children found each other. Billy said that they “brought her home,” by scattering her ashes in the river.
Shannon posted her appeal on Facebook to locate family connections in Northern Ireland. Billy was able to connect with Shannon last year via Facebook when a friend spotted her post. The siblings have been getting to know each other, and Billy has been learning about Moya. However, the reunion was bittersweet as they found out that their mother had died in 2019 and that Billy was forced to give up for adoption. They were both pleased to have found each other and plan to stay connected
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