Abandoned at birth, she turns her life around after years of anger

Ms Grace Lee, 39, was abandoned at birth. Her mother gave birth to her at KK Women's and Children's Hospital but left without her baby, while her biological father was never in the picture.

- Theresa Tan

Ms Lee - who later learnt her birth mother had an affair with a married man - has never met her biological parents. She was later adopted by a teacher and her engineer husband.

The wounds of abandonment ran deep, and it was not until she met an unwed mother who gave her child up for adoption that she was able to come to terms with her birth circumstances and adoption.

On Oct 12, Ms Lee is launching a book she wrote about her life titled Abandoned At Birth, Living With Hope.

She said it took only one person whose story she heard to change her own life and turn it around, and hopes her story can similarly bring hope to others with difficult childhoods.

She also hopes to change the stereotype that abandoned children and orphans do not do well in life, given that they started off with the short end of the stick.

In 1986, about two years after she was born, The Straits Times ran a story about how the then Ministry of Community Development, now known as the Ministry of Social and Family Development, was looking for her birth mother. But her birth mother did not respond.