“Somewhere the church got off track and it became a fear-based cult and I was forced to make a choice,” says Melanie Williams, 62, who gave up her baby for adoption in January 1981.
At 18, Melanie became pregnant after falling “madly in love” with a boy from her school.
Not only were the pair unmarried, but the father was not a member of The Truth and refused to become one. This meant Melanie had committed a “terrible sin” in the eyes of local workers.
The workers and her family decided that she could only continue to attend church meetings if she gave her baby to another family in the sect.
“If I keep this baby, I’m going to go to hell. If I keep the baby, I can’t go home,” Melanie recalls thinking.
She gave birth in a Catholic hospital in Oklahoma, where she was discreetly put in a room on her own.
She remembers being shouted at by a doctor when she began to cry during labour.
Melanie’s baby was whisked away before it made a sound and she says she didn’t know whether she’d had a girl or a boy.
The new mother was left wondering if her child might be dead.
When she eventually found out the baby was alive, she told a nurse she was wavering on whether to go through with the adoption and wanted to hold her baby.
“You can’t ever hold your baby,” came the reply.
Years later, Melanie managed to track her daughter down – but she didn’t want to meet.
