Emotional moment A woman who feared her son would not forgive her for giving him up for adoption is praised for her ‘selflessness’ and ‘courage’ in letter to Long Lost Family

A woman who feared her eldest son would never forgive her for giving him up for adoption was visibly moved when she received a letter from him about Long Lost Family, praising his “selflessness” and “courage.”

Caroline Kinsey, 63, from Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, gave birth to Simon when she was just 18. Upon hearing the news of her pregnancy, her boyfriend and the father of her baby left her.

Without the means to give the newborn the kind of education she wanted for him, she made the painful decision to abandon him.

She admitted on tonight’s Long Lost Family that she didn’t even hug her son because she knew if she had she wouldn’t have been able to let him go.

But luckily, ITV show investigators found Simon, who was renamed Thomas by his adoptive parents, and the birth mother and son reunited in emotional scenes. Before the meeting, Tom sent Caroline a touching letter.

When told that the team had located Tom, Caroline asked, “I’d like to ask if you’ve forgiven me, because how can someone really give away a baby?”

He was then handed a letter Tom wrote to Caroline which read: ‘Dear Caroline. Thank you for contacting us. My feelings about being adopted is a true sense of wonder and gratitude.

“Since becoming a father, I have been able to imagine the level of courage and selflessness it would take to make such a decision. And I feel compelled to say thank you. We’re looking forward to meeting you, Tom.

‘There’s always the chance that he might just [say] “Oh well, she dumped me, I don’t want anything to do with her,” an emotional Caroline said after reading the note.

The mother of three said she hasn’t stopped thinking about her lost son for the past 43 years. She showed Long Lost Family the diary for the year. she lost her son.

Caroline said: ‘This is my diary from 1980 which automatically opens to the page when I had Simon. It also tells me the day I came home alone.

She added: “I never held it because if I had held it, I wouldn’t have been able to give it up.”

‘I can only remember this little bundle with a lot of black hair. And that was the last time I saw him.

Tom wrote her a letter, praising her for her courage and ‘selflessness’ when Caroline was worried that he might not forgive her.

Caroline Kinsey (pictured center right) with her husband David (pictured right), son Tom (pictured center left) and wife Sam (pictured left)

When she was handed a photograph of her son now, she said: ‘Oh my gosh, dark hair, handsome. It looks lovely.

Earlier she recalled: ‘The decision to give him up for adoption was entirely my own. I think a family unit should be a mother and a father because you work as a team to raise a family.

‘I didn’t have any money. And I couldn’t have given a baby the education and the childhood that I wanted to give it.’

While recovering in the hospital after the birth, Caroline only saw Simon, who weighed eight pounds three ounces, twice.

Simon was renamed by his adoptive parents as Tom, ironically what Caroline’s other son is called.

Caroline later married her husband David and had twins. children, Tom and Amy, now both 23 years old.

Tom, who lives in Somerset, is 43 years old, married to Sam and has two children aged 8 and 3, which means Caroline is a grandmother.

After giving Simon up for adoption, Caroline married and had twin boys (pictured) who are now 23 years old.

Caroline pictured as a young woman. She says that she has thought of Simon every day since she left him when he was a baby.

He told co-anchor Nicky Campbell that he has known he was adopted for as long as he can remember, and that his adoptive parents have been amazing, and that he is grateful to Caroline.

A week after hearing the news that her son had been found, Caroline traveled to Berkshire to see Tom for the first time in over 40 years, saying she was feeling “nervous, apprehensive and excited”.

She added: “It’s like meeting a stranger who should be very close.”

Tom said: ‘I’m interested in where some of my quirks come from. Because if you don’t know me, you might misinterpret my general demeanor as uncaring.

“I really want to give him a hug because it will be my first time hugging him,” Caroline said.

Even though Tom admitted that he’s not a hugger, the They both smiled at each other and then gave each other a long, heartfelt hug that Caroline had always wanted.

Tom asked Caroline if she was okay, she replied, “I’ve waited 43 years for that hug.”

Caroline has asked ITV to help her with her search to find her son so she can deal with the guilt she has had since giving him up for adoption.

Tom said that his adoptive parents had given him many opportunities and Caroline later said how grateful she was to Tom’s parents for ‘giving them what I couldn’t give them’.

Strangely, it seems that the couple could have even met years before and not even know each other. Caroline owned a sports shop in Bishops Stortford, where Tom went to school and played hockey.

He said: ‘I went to school at Bishops Stortford so I was probably in the shop and could have bought you a hockey stick’, to which Caroline replied with ‘creepy’.

Caroline said: “I was very, very nervous before I walked through the door, but as soon as I saw Tom, it was all gone.” It really was like a dream come true. There seems to be some similarities, we both speak quite low.

Tom then showed Caroline pictures of his grandchildren and she called them ‘beautiful’.

He said: ‘It was very nice to meet her. I think we’re pretty similar, just in the way we talk. She’s quite thoughtful, I think we’re quite similar like that.

“I’m a bit shocked, but the questions have been answered, or have started to be answered,” Tom said.

Tom met his siblings Tom and Amy via video call and even joked about whether a name change is necessary.