In 1981, Salomé Tadford’s son was taken from her. She was a young teenage mom who’d fallen pregnant at just 13 years old, the result of sexual abuse from her half-brother.
Salomé describes the taking of her baby (which occurred at her then-home in Alberton) to have been illicit. People unknown to her had arrived at her house and claimed to be working for welfare services before they took her child away. She wouldn’t see her child, Frits Brandon, for the next 40 years.
Salomé carried a picture of her baby with her wherever she went for years to come, striving fiercely to be reunited with him one day, as Parent24 tells.
Salomé’s life had gone on. She’d become a mother of other children, and a grandmother. However, alongside the help of her husband Leonard, her first child never left her mind.
In 2019 she took to social media to spur further search efforts in the era of social media. Her Facebook page, SonWhereRU, implored the help of other South Africans for any information on who and where her son was now.
In the public sphere, she shared that her beliefs were that her son was taken illicitly.
“Regarding my son which was removed from me. I have been in contact with the department [of] social development as of about 2006. They claim they have a record of adoption for my son and that I signed and approved the adoption but will not elaborate any further information. I never signed or approved any adoption for my son. I do not believe he was given out for adoption legally. This is based on the devious conduct of my known to me mother in many other instances,” she explained.
However, a few weeks ago, during this July, Salomé’s life changed forever, her years of searching finally rewarded.
On 5 July, “the day started like any other in South Africa” Salomé described, adding that loadshedding was looming – definitely any other day in South Africa. She was boiling the kettle when she received a message from an unknown number at 4:53am.
The message relayed that her story had the sender in tears, and they thought they had information. Speaking in Afrikaans, the message expressed that the sender knew a Brandon whose birthday was on the 18 Septmber 1981, and that the names (even the original surname, Erasmus, Salomé’s maiden name) matched up.
In disbelief and with a desire to know more, the hopeful mother asked for more information. She was quickly sent a copy of the adoption papers. The hospital where this Brandon was born was the same as her son, and other information lined up, giving Salomé solid hope.
