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Chapter 1: What was Sandra Collins' life like in Killala before her pregnancy?
In 1998, Sandra Collins was 26 years old and still sharing a bedroom with her aunt Anne in the tiny cottage in Killala. It was a quiet, mundane kind of existence. But from what we've been told, it seems that Sandra was a private and quiet sort of person who made the best of things. She was a familiar figure in the village who helped out the elderly neighbours that lived around her.
She'd often do their messages for them, calling into local shops to pick up bits for their tea. Anne was strict about their daily routines, what time they had their meals and when the chores had to be done. But Sandra did get time to herself and managed to make some friends who lived close by, girls who were significantly younger than her and who lived equally innocent and sheltered sort of lives.
She also had a boyfriend for a while. At the time, her family back in Kalala weren't aware that she'd been seeing a young local man. But Bridie did know that Sandra, like many young people, dreamt of having someone special in her life.
She wanted to meet someone and get married and have a family and... fall in love and be loved and we all love the happy ever afters and happy for everybody that gets the happy ever afters and she was one of them.
When we'd be younger she'd be saying oh have you any boyfriend to me and I'd be saying not yet now and you're older than me you're four years older than me you're the one that should be having them not me I'm too young yet and then when I'd be going to the discos when she'd come up on the Sunday night she'd be saying to me oh was there anybody nice last night or
And I'd be saying, oh, there was and there wasn't. She wanted to hear all the gossip as to what went on. And she was very happy for me when I met my husband and when I got married. She was my bridesmaid and she was pregnant at the time. There was no bitterness in her, there was no begrudgery, there was no everything, look what's happened to me. There was no resentment towards other people.
She was happy for other people to be happy.
But she's still at the back of it, probably longing for it to come her way. Waiting for her day to come. And that's probably how she survived. I don't know, I'm only surmising. That's probably how she kept herself going every day. One day I'll bump into him, and one day... The days were hard, blowing Killala, there was a row where it was being difficult.
She probably thought, one day I'll be gone. I think she was waiting to be rescued.
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Chapter 2: How did Sandra's family react to her unexpected pregnancy?
Maybe she thought a baby would be just what the doctor ordered in as regards to their circumstances. Yeah, it'd be just wonderful and they'd raise it and she'd, but you see I think Anne was jealous as well because she was married herself you see and it went pear-shaped because she got sick and she couldn't have children.
She had loads of miscarriages so how could, how dare, how dare Sandra have a baby?
Yeah.
Just who did she think she was to have a baby?
So then Sandra made the decision that, no, trust in the right place, trust in the right environment. She gave the baby up for adoption. She took her, didn't she? She gave her away.
She'd be too toxic, like.
That's exactly what she said. She deserves to have a mother. What was she like when she came back then? Did she just accept her lot? That this was it? It was her and Anne?
I think so, Nicola, yeah. Yeah.
And she was so young. She was, what, 26 when she had her, yeah. And then I only found out then, like, a couple of years ago, really, her friends told me that before she had her adopted life, that she would walk to the house where the woman that was minding her... She was in foster care. She was in foster, yeah.
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Chapter 3: What were the circumstances surrounding Sandra's decision to give her baby up for adoption?
And he said, well, from what I know about it, he said his leg was caught in the machine and he said they amputated his leg and he's on his way up. He's nearly at the hospital now. So I said, well... I said, oh my God, like he's lost his legs, his leg. But I said, sure, to Michael, like I said, sure, he's not going to die anyway.
You know, so I said, we'll go up and when I know what I'm dealing with, I'll get in contact with you. mum and them at home because they had no phone. So we went up then after, got dressed and we went up and I knew, I knew when I got to the hospital.
There was people standing outside like and they all just looked so, I just knew, I said to Michael, I really don't think this is good before we ever go in, so.
I was 13. We were in bed and the knock came to the door and the man that brought us to school, we were very good friends with his kids, and he brought Sandra, James and Barney as well to school. And my dad went to the door, like it must have been half two at night, and I heard him say, he said, oh, who was there? I don't know why he didn't actually answer the door, just straight out. Thank you.
And he said who it was. And then I heard, and Father Pat Mumley, I heard him say, James has been in an accident. And I heard my dad say, he thought it was a car accident. And he said, oh my God, and is he okay? And is the car badly damaged? I'll never forget that. And he said, oh no, no, no, Joe, it's not a car accident. It's an accident at work.
So we all got out of bed and it was kind of pandemonium really. And they were in the kitchen and they said that they didn't really know anything, but that Mammy would have to go to Castle Bear. And I think that you were already up there, as far as I can remember.
I remember jumping out of the bed, and I remember going into the bedroom, into our mum and dad's room, and Mam was in the corner, you know, getting dressed, and she said, oh, we'll say a prayer now that James will be all right. And the three of us, like, I was 13, Davy was... ten and Mary was nine. He was buried on Mary's ninth birthday, actually.
But I can remember us praying that, you know, James... And I remember Mammy saying, he'll be fine as long... We didn't have any details. He'll be fine as long as he didn't hit his head. So anyway, the day went off and my dad was left at home with us and the neighbours were there and then the next thing...
maybe 20 minutes later, other neighbours down the road had come to the door looking to see where Sandra and Anne lived because they did have a telephone at the time. We didn't. So they rang the neighbours asking would they be able to go collect them and bring them up to us. So they knocked on the door and said, where did Anne and Sandra live?
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