The year was 1997, and Celeste Nurse was 18. She woke up in a Cape Town maternity hospital to find that her baby had gone missing. She fell asleep while holding her child close. The child was taken by a woman who was pretending to be a nurse. For 20 years, the Nurses celebrated their daughter’s birthday without her because they never gave up hope that they would find her.2015 saw an amazing change in events. Because Celeste Nurse has a second child, the Nurses meet a new person named Zephany.
Zephany looked a lot like their lost daughter, and they even had the same birthday. The Nurse’s family was so shocked by the news that they called the cops and asked for a DNA test. Zephany was their long-lost child, as shown by the DNA test. “DNA is honest. The results proved what we felt in our hearts,” said Celeste Nurse. The first time cops asked Miché Solomon (then known as Zephany Nurse) a question, she didn’t know what to say.
The social workers at Retreat Hospital found that even though her birth certificate said she was born there, there were no records of that happening. When the DNA findings came back, Miché’s whole world fell apart. A lady named Lavona Solomon has been charged with kidnapping and fraud. Miché had always thought that Solomon was her mother. Lavona kept saying she was innocent as the hearing went on. She said that Sylvia, a woman, gave her the baby, but there was never any proof of this.
She got 10 years in jail in the end for kidnapping, fraud, and breaking the Children’s Act. “It felt like my life fell apart when the gavel hit the floor,” Miché remembered.Miché met her birth parents at the police station with the help of social workers. Even though the nurses were thrilled, Miché couldn’t help but feel nervous. Even though she had never met them, her biological family was ready to step in and fill the void left by her cultural family.
I have two families, and each one claims me as their own. “It was a battleground for the mind and the heart,” Miché said. Miché moved back in with Michael Solomon, whom she considers her father, after her parents got separated. She didn’t feel safe living with any of them. Miché has been having a hard time balancing her two identities since she chose to keep her given name instead of going back to her real name Zephany.
She still pays frequent visits to Lavona in prison but is moving on with her life, having forgiven but not forgotten the woman who raised her in a lie. I am a mix of Miché and Zephany. “The truth hurt, but it freed me,” she said in the end.
