After thirty-two years, the mother is reunited with her son.
Janice Hoy did not believe she had the maturity or resources to raise a child at age 17. After giving birth in December 1987, she then decided to place her child for adoption.
“He was perfect,” Hoy told CBC. “He was beautiful.”
Hoy held and fed her infant before returning home and sobbing.
She continued to visit the child until she and the child’s father, Earl Strong, signed documents waiving their parental rights.
“I’d go several times a day. I’d sit with him and I talked to him. I told him that I was just a kid myself,” Hoy said.
“I told him that I was sorry and that I loved him. I told the baby that if he ever wanted to find me, I wasn’t going anywhere. I wouldn’t change my name. And I hoped that one day he would want to find me.”
Together, Hoy and Strong pursued careers as registered nurse and a firefighter.
They ultimately wed and had three sons, but they never told anyone about the child they gave up.
“This was my dirty secret. It was something that I was embarrassed or ashamed of,” Hoy said.
Still, Hoy took time each year on her son’s birthday to privately grieve.
She and her husband devised a plan to find their missing son. However, they agreed to wait until their youngest child turned 16 and was able to comprehend the situation.
Hoy registered her name with the government in secret in case her son sought her out. This would allow him to locate her.
Unfortunately, Strong passed away in 2018 after his snowmobile fell through the ice on Ontario’s Sturgeon Lake.
After receiving treatment for depression, Hoy was attending therapy, where she was advised to confront the loss of her husband and firstborn.
Hoy was able to find her son with the assistance of an adoption consultant.
“Hello, I’m your birth mother. I’ve been waiting my — your — whole life to hear from you. I hope you’ll text me back,” she messaged him.
As it turns out, he spent his entire life waiting to receive the message.
“I had been waiting for this message my whole life,” said Kevin Ferguson. “So many questions go through my head. Who are you? Where are you from? What’s our background? Do I have siblings?”
Hoy and Ferguson lived within fifteen minutes of each other. They pondered whether they had ever crossed paths. Hoy informed her sons of the news and eventually met with Ferguson.
“The first time I saw him, I knew I loved him,” Hoy said.
Ferguson was astounded by his striking resemblance to his biological brothers. He resembled Hoy’s second-oldest son Blake in particular.
“It was like I was looking in a mirror. It was shocking. I was looking at my long-lost brother. He looked like my dad. He spoke like my dad. He acted like my dad. And I looked at Kevin and his horrible facial hair and how short he was, and I was like, this is my dad 2.0. It just gave me this warm, fuzzy feeling in my belly, like, he belongs. This is a last parting gift from my dad to me.”
Despite the passage of 32 years, this family enjoys maturing and catching up.