One of the biggies for me in the case is the fact that Sheila met her birth mother for the first time during May 1985. This would have been some 10 to 14 weeks before the tragedy, dependent on when in May they met.
Nicky Cambell, radio and tv presenter, patron of British Association for Adoption and Fostering and author of book Blue-Eyed Son: The Story Of An Adoption, is interviewed about his adoption and reuniting with his birth parents:
http://www.videojug.com/interview/nicky-campbell-on-adoptionNicky considers his adoption to have been very successful. Even so he still highlights issues that most if not all adoptees have to deal with. His adoptive parents already had a birth child and his adoptive mother was a psychiatric social worker. All these things indicate that the outcomes for Nicky/his adoption experience would have have been far more favourable than most 'closed' adoptions as indeed they were. No evidence of any dysfunction or mental illness either with Nicky's adoptive mother or Nicky.
In the 9th section re meeting his birth parents he states:
"You've got to protect yourself because its tough. It can be very, very tough. You're talking about raw emotional truths that you confront"
In the 11th section re advice he would give to others intending to meet their birth parents he states:
"Go into it knowing its going to be challenging." "Get advice from professionals and good counselling."
How might Sheila have coped with her fragile mind? Bearing in mind her view of her life/adoption etc relationship with June was unlikely to have been favourable? A complete contrast to Nicky's.
Again Sheila's life/adoption/relationship with her adoptive mother is a complete contrast to my own. I know how common mental illness is but I'm lucky enough never to have suffered from such an infliction. As such I feel I was perhaps better able to cope with reuniting with my birth parents than perhaps others were. Even so it was still a very, very emotionally draining experience despite the fact that the reunions were positive. Albeit I only have an ongoing relationship with my birth father.
Nicky highlights the fact that there was no counselling etc available when he reunited, which was the same for myself and no doubt Sheila. For an adoptee to obtain a copy of his/her birth certificate enabling a search and reunion a brief compulsory one-off counselling session was required as per The Children Act 1975 and the Adoption Act 1976.
When Dr Ferguson was asked what effect the reunion may have had on Sheila he said he didn't know but that the parting may have been painful. Lofl...
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My view and I stress it is MY view is that Sheila finding out about her family eg academics, possibly happy and well adjusted, was unable to reconcile the two identities. That is the person she thought she may have been had she not have been adopted into the Bamber family and instead raised by her birth mother/family and the person she perceived she was as a result of being adopted by the Bambers. I believe her visit to WHF in August, a place she disliked visiting as a result of June according to Dr Ferguson, was the first since reuniting with her birth mother. This along with possibly other matters eg the welfare of the twins etc MAY have caused an adverse reaction resulting in the tragedy.
