Left in a paper bag at birth, I've spent years looking for my birth mom to say: thank you

This First Person article is the experience of Sherwin Moscovitch, who lives in Regina. For more information about CBC's First Person stories, please see the FAQ.

I'd known for decades I'd been adopted. But around my 35th birthday, I was shocked to learn the real circumstances of my birth — that I was a baby who had been found abandoned in a car. 

My parents had told me I was adopted around the time I was five. It had never really bothered me as they'd been the best parents to me and my other adopted siblings.

But over the years, being a curious guy, I'd thought about my birth parents quite often. 

When my adoptive father got sick in 1999, it got me thinking more seriously about trying to find my biological parents. Around the time of my 35th birthday in March, I was on a lunch break from work when the idea struck me to go to the library and see what was going on the day I was born. 

Since the library kept old newspapers, I thought I might find a birth announcement on or around that day would help me find my birth parents. It was worth a shot.

As I rolled through each page of the newspaper microfiche, it didn't take long before I came upon a headline saying, "Baby found abandoned in car."

The article explained that on a cool morning on March 23, 1964, a doctor who had been called into a Regina hospital for an emergency surgery was heading home. Upon opening his car's front door, he was bewildered to see a paper bag on the seat. Thinking someone was pulling a prank on him, he grabbed the bag. Inside was a newborn child. The child was wrapped in a blanket, wearing a diaper and had been put into the bag.

What really struck me was the photo. I sat there stunned as I looked at it, the face so familiar to other baby photos of me. 

"That looks like me," I thought.

WATCH: This Regina man has spent decades looking for his birth mom

Left in a paper bag 60 years ago, he’s been searching for his birth mother all his life

8 hours ago

Duration 2:59

Sherwin Moscovitch says he's had a great life, but he's always wondered about his birth mother. The 61-year-old was left in a paper bag outside a Regina hospital in 1964, as a newborn. He has gone to great lengths to find his family but still isn't giving up.

I immediately drove to Social Services and showed the staff the photo I'd found at the library. They told me I was likely not the abandoned baby found in the hospital parking lot. Disappointed, I left the office and headed back to work. I'm not sure what happened after I left, but a few minutes later, I got a call asking me to come back. 

I knew instantly it was me. I was that abandoned baby.

When I went back, staff put me in an office and told me the baby was indeed me. I then got a file that had the information on the incident. I went back to work stunned.

It had taken 35 years, but I finally felt one step closer to learning my family history. I began contacting the people mentioned in the article, from the doctor who found me to the police officer that had been in charge of the investigation. 

While those were interesting conversations, they didn't bring me any closer to figuring out who my birth parents were nor did making my search public and heard as widely as possible across Canada.

When DNA testing started becoming discussed as a more commonly used tool — with people saying they were having great success finding long-lost family — I figured this might be my chance. 

In 2016, I sent in my DNA sample to a company and almost immediately, I had matches. I couldn't believe it when I saw a message from someone saying I was her half brother. In fact, I had two half-siblings in Saskatchewan, and one of those half-siblings gave me my birth father's name and address.

To my total shock, I learned he lived right in the same city as me. I jumped in my car and headed right over, knocking the door to see him.

Just like when I saw my baby photo, I saw something of myself in his face.

But his memory was not very good and he could not tell me who my birth mother was nor did he want any more to do with me. I'd been glad just to see him face-to-face, but what I'd always wanted was to find my birth mom — the person who carried me for nine months and who gave me a chance to be found.

For 25 years, I've been looking for her.

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People ask me all the time what I would say to my birth mother if I did have the chance to talk to her.

I just want to say thank you. If she hadn't left me in that doctor's car, my life as I know it would have been erased. I wouldn't be here if she hadn't cared to try and give me a chance at life, a chance to be raised by two loving adoptive parents and to have my own family now. 

If she's reading this now — thanks from the bottom of my heart. I'll keep hoping we meet so that someday, I can thank you in person. 

Do you have a compelling personal story that can bring understanding or help others? We want to hear from you. Email sask-first-person-grp@cbc.ca to learn more.