Nancy died not too long ago after a heroic battle against an unbeatable cancer. I am so sorry that I did not take the time to learn more of her story. I first met her many years ago at a Christmas party and we talked at great length about all the children that she had cared for and found homes for over the years. When adoptions were shut down in Guatemala she had adopted two, Gaby and Daisy, whom she was legally able to adopt. Gaby was delivered to where Nancy was staying with some nuns as a tiny newborn by a young fellow. He handed the obviously premature baby to Nancy and fled. Nancy took the baby to a doctor in Antigua who told her, “that baby is going to die and you will go to jail.” She kept the tiny baby inside her shirt and fed her with an eyedropper. The baby, Gaby, did not die, instead she is now working on a PhD in applied chemistry in the United States and is on track for US citizenship. But Nancy did go to jail, some years later.
Guatemala had become a place where many who wanted to adopt could find, theoretically adoptable, babies. Nancy, a native of California, never set out to be in the adoption business but during a visit to Guatemala she had become consumed with the need to do something to help. She moved in with some nuns whom she had befriended. They were doing what they could to help the impoverished Guatemalans. Somehow, word had gotten out that the nuns would take unwanted babies. Fairly quickly Nancy found herself knee deep in the adoption bureaucracy and using contacts in the United States to find good homes for the babies. Nancy was determined that the kids would be educated, speak English and would be given opportunities that they might not otherwise have had.
While Nancy was able to adopt Gaby and Daisy there were other kids who missed out on being adopted as the laws changed. Nancy told me that the other kids were technically wards of the state but that the “state” had never come to check on them. Through her non-profit, Semillas de Amor, she raised funds for private education for all of the kids. She worked with the courts and the US Embassy to get them all passports and US visas. She raised funds for educational trips to the United States. She engaged career counselors to talk with the kids. She raised funds to buy a group home for the kids where they live today with Paula and her daughter. The “Semillas” kids, while orphans, have had opportunities that many Guatemala kids never experience.
After adoptions were stopped in Guatemala for a lot of the right reasons a number of Guatemalan attorneys were implicated in the outright stealing and trafficking of babies. It was a huge scandal and continues today as many adoptees try to find their birth mothers and hear their stories. Perhaps, as a retaliation for all the bad press the Guatemalan government fingered Nancy and charged her with child trafficking for her role in finding good homes for babies left on her doorstep. She was out of the country when the charges materialized and Interpol put her on their “wanted” list. The US Embassy advised Nancy not to try to enter Guatemala as she would be arrested at the border. She told them that she did not care but she wanted to see the kids. She attempted to enter the country from El Salvador but was, in fact, arrested at the border. She spent some eighteen months in a dreadful women’s prison in one of the most dreadful areas of Guatemala City, zone 18. Clearly, that ordeal took a toll on her health. When she finally had a trial she was acquitted on all charges yet never again was able to leave the country for repeated appeals by the well known to be corrupt prosecutor who wouldn’t accept the not guilty verdict. Not even for treatment against her cancer was she allowed to leave until it was too late.
I met Nancy again as the pandemic was winding down. I wanted to pick her brains on how to manage kids who were not my own as hers were not her own. She talked about the ones who had been adopted as infants who would never know the “other side.” She talked about the ones I looked after and the ones she continued to look after as being very grateful because they were very aware of that other side. The youngest of Nancy’s kids are now in the tenth and eleventh grade. They are lovely kids. Two graduated last year and one of them, Frankie, was devastated on hearing about Nancy’s cancer diagnosis. He said that as Nancy was the only family he had ever had and that he would have no one if she died.
Nancy has two adult sons of her own and my hope is that they, with the able help of Gaby and Daisy, will look after the younger kids and become Frankie’s family. Nancy, please rest in peace. I am certain that there is a place in heaven for you.
Wish there were Nancys in our world.