Kay McDonald began getting notes and phone calls from Reverend Miller. What that meant was that after Chemical finally found out the truth in 1994, people started coming up to her in church, mostly casually mentioning that they'd known about it all along. Would make a good twin to her. One of the most popular episodes of National Public Radio's "This American Life" is titled "Switched at Birth". Now that the big family questions are mostly worked out, one of the toughest things both Marti and Sue have to deal with is logistical. And so while Seward figured everyone would choose Marty, the outgoing cheerleader, over her, it didn't work out that way. So she's basically I mean, that's so she's basically saying to you, you may have actually gotten a break here. When we took our baby home, she sneezed five times in a row. Katie Leclerc and Adam Hagenbuch in "Switched at Birth.". I only had one daughter and she had five daughters. For starters, Mrs. Miller didn't contact Marti and Sue at the same time. But then Mrs. Miller told me more her side of this story. Probably the ladies aid, maybe, you know, the little group that got together. She circled the names of people that were participating in the program like my one of my uncles on the birth side, Earl Gonzales. Everyone had to work. And she was angry that Mrs. Miller put Sue in the difficult position of having to break news like this to her parents. I'm Ira Glass. And I couldn't figure that out at the time. But overall, the Millers seem giddy that their daughter has finally come home and Sue seems eager to know them. [00:00:33] And I wanted to be a cheerleader. The older girls had sort of always known about the possibility that Marty wasn't their biological sister. I felt they were trying to take her away from us. And there were a lot of kids too. She heard it first from her own mom, who heard it at church. I decided to take coach Medlock's offer. Going the normal way, like most [INAUDIBLE]? Likely one of the most complicated and crazy switched at birth cases is that of Kimberly Mays and Arlena Twigg who, in 1978, went home from the hospital with the wrong parents. She says, I was pregnant and you are my child. First, she wanted to be absolutely sure it was true. And until that time, we just talked all the time. He danced with my mother. They have mutual acquaintances. But that's pretty much where it ends. Because he told me, well, I don't care what anybody says. But I went along with it, because I don't like to make waves, I guess, you might say. One mother, Mary Miller, knew and kept it a secret, did nothing about it, for 43 years. That could be. Kay was angry that Mrs. Miller hadn't corrected things back in 1951, that Mrs. Miller had hijacked her life in this way. There were also some definite deficits. Slowly, anger began to set in. The other problem for Marti was how to approach the McDonalds, her biological parents. I'm Ira Glass. In fact, it was the exact opposite. Kay is no longer angry the way she was, but she says she'll never understand why Mrs. Miller stayed silent for all those years. This is my mom and dad. When she got on the phone, I was just totally blown away, by the way, she pronounced her words were identical with the way my mother talked. Before the letter arrived, the facts of Sue's life, it seemed pretty orderly. And I'm really like that too. Marty calls Mrs. Miller once a week to check up on her, just like does now that the big family questions are mostly worked out. He is an evangelical preacher, you know, he wants people to know Jesus Christ and that they would be saved. The Millers didn't have much money and they might not have been able to afford the health care otherwise. He finally did. He thought she really dreamed this up in her head and just got obsessed with it. She was just tired of secrets. Miss Miller's husband, the Reverend Norbert Miller, was an evangelical preacher devoted to the church, and they were a bookish, serious bunch. Nobody would dance with me at the dances. Never had that happened with any of our others. Blood tests were done with the Millers and they proved Mrs. Miller was right about the switch. And we had the same personality. (Paperback) by Janice Kay Johnson (Goodreads Author) It's available wherever you get your podcasts and. I was sure then that there had been a mix-up. The five girls shared one bedroom. So we all we never said anything about it. Switched at Birth Star Katie Leclerc Talks the Series Finale, Meniere's Do you have a second? All she could do was hope that maybe if she dropped enough hints, calling the girls, sisters and such, Kay would eventually realize on her own what had happened. Nobody would dance with me at the dances. So he and Mrs. Miller were invited and the Millers came. Why did you listen to her husband back in 1951? There's a lot of nervous laughter. If you're ever curious as to what they were, I would be very willing to fill you in. To get to the bathroom, you had to go under the bed and crawl. And and I'm really like that to. Do let me hear from you. It wouldn't work. Hey, I was switched at birth with you. At last, Mrs. Miller felt free to act. Try keep it short so that it is easy for people to scan your page. One of the mothers realized the mistake but chose to keep quiet. But that's all she said. It exploded. What would happen if you suddenly took a six month old away from the only mother she knew? And now, suddenly, it turned out Sue was one of them. That's not how their family worked. But later, the two churches merged. This American Life is a weekly public radio show, heard by 2.2 million people on more than 500 stations. On The Road; FAQ; Submissions; Store; Contact Us; Our Other Shows; Follow Us. She's a very busy gal, and I was not having that much communication with her. So I passed it off. She always had jokes. So she said, unless there's a real reason that you need to know, she said, I don't recommend that you dig into it. And here I am. This American life is delivered to public radio stations by parks. daniel kessler guitar style. Archive - This American Life The fact is Mrs. Miller longed for Sue for her biological daughter ever since she realized the mistake back in 1951, but it seemed futile trying to convince her husband, Norbert. It was an odd strategy, if you can even call it that. Nobody should have gone back and said this is not maybe. She's also religious like Sue. And so I kind of made a promise to myself that I would just never go down that road again, that I was just not going to go there. A month and a half later, she wrote the letter. For this assignment, listen to the Prologue, Act 1, and Act 2 of the This American Life episode #360 called Switched at Birth. And, you know, because I wonder what's going to happen when my parents are gone. The card was signed, from your other possible parents. We love you, Martha Jane, as dearly as our other six children. So then she found out she had all of these, um, brothers and sisters and the phone calls were fewer. I mean, the my kids are all serious about their life yet, no, they're more like I am before when I'd asked you if you thought it was God's will. She could have been my aunt or my mother talking on the phone. She said everybody kind of at church, after having seen Marty beside the rest of the family, just couldn't believe that that was their child. Just got obsessed with it. We had a baby scale at home. Rita Hynes lugged her pregnant body up the rural hospital's wooden steps. Once things calm down, Sue came to two conclusions one, she wasn't going to become estranged from her mother, and two, it was her brother she might lose. In fact, my mother said, well, just don't tell anybody, you know. Where? Kay was a Methodist and the Millers were Evangelicals. 754. Why the big concern about disgracing the doctor over, you know, having the wrong baby? I mean, that's my biological family. And I'm reading this thing going, what do you mean this is my uncle, this is my brother, this is my mom and dad? She said, well, if you were to find out that that these parents that you have are not your parents and the other family doesn't want to have anything to do with you, how are you going to feel? And why ruin all that? Whatever it was a different life. The Millers are the bespectacled, dark-haired ones from the letter. And the feeling in their house is very different from the feeling in the Millers house. They started talking on the phone a lot. I love you both. He was he, in fact, would call me and tell me, you know, I don't care what she says. Marti calls Mrs. Miller once a week to check up on her, just like Sue does. Exactly. And I said, I don't know. Switched at Birth is about two teen girls and their families . It was actually right after I met them. Well, of course, they were really clamoring to get to know her. The 12 Best This American Life Episodes - Discover Pods Marty shared a bed with her sister Faith and had to crawl through this vent to get to the bathroom at night because faith would block the doorway to the hall. It's sad that it happened. This is the daughter that actually was in you. From Marti's perspective, the genetic counselor's prediction from years before seemed to be coming true, and it felt like she was losing both her mothers. Oh, that's a funny question, I. I really. Here's Marty. At just 20, Rita knew what she was in for. So she said, well, if you were to find out that these parents that you have are not your parents and the other family doesn't want to have anything to do with you, how are you going to feel? A small thing, but it was a big thing to me. She's with us. No, no, no. So a bunch of people from the Evangelical Church now knew who Kay McDonald was and who Sue was, and realized that this was the girl Mrs. Miller believed to be her own. And Sue seems eager to know them. Mrs. Miller's most ambitious scheme happened after the girls graduated from high school, when they were about to be 18. And why ruin all that? Later that same day, Sue drove to the McDonalds', to the parents she'd grown up with. I was just not ever meeting their expectation of intellectual ism, and my mother has told me since then, you know, you I really didn't expect that much from you because I knew that you weren't our child. His heart was elsewhere. The other mother, Kay McDonald, had no idea. I tried out for cheerleading, I just couldn't do it, you know, I didn't get picked. And he let Marty know that he still loved her. No, no, no. And he was very angry at first with me. this american life switched at birth transcript. And my mother, nothing was going to be different between us. And my mother has told me since then, you know, I really didn't expect that much from you, because I knew that you weren't our child. Probably the Ladies Aid, maybe, you know, the little group that got together. People were definitely aware whenever both women were in the same room. And when Bob found out about Marty, found out that she was his biological sister, he called her right away in California. There are birthdays and graduations and figuring out where to spend holidays. She said she was really live like he always had jokes. They decided that Ruth ought to have a look too. So she's excited about it. I just I just thought it was odd that so many people would know in a town of our size, which is like 50, 500 people, when that many people were aware of it, that the news didn't get to us. There were a few years there, where every chance my mother got, she made it perfectly clear that I was a McDonald. Is my brother going to care to even see me anymore? I think little children take care of. I just couldn't do it. So there would have been no proof. Yes. In 1994, Mary Miller wrote letters to Sue and Marti, confessing the secret she'd kept for 43 years: The daughters had been switched at birth and raised by the wrong families. After dinner, she sat down and told them about Mrs. Miller's letter, told them point blank she wasn't their child. And as Ruth and Faith saw it, it wasn't their place to mess in their parents' affairs, which is why when her husband, Rudy, blurted it out a few years later, Ruth was so shocked and Marty refused to believe it at that point. You know, when she finally heard from Mrs. Miller, the mother she'd grown up with, not only did she get the letter, but Mrs. Miller had just been to the fiftieth anniversary party of the McDonald's, Marty's biological parents. My dad right there who looks happy. There's a large statue of an angel in her sitting room which she's planning to put on her own grave. Often when strangers tell me about their favorite story on our show. And so in this half of the story we hear from the mothers again. As Martha grew, she did not look nor act like any other children. The Secret Life of the American Teenager. This American Life often broadcasts short fiction or essays that touch on absurd or deeply imaginative, but this single-story episode proved that sometimes, truth is stranger than fiction. And this was a bad decision. She was guarded. Marti wrote a letter to Kay and Bob McDonald, her biological parents. Store; Subscribe to our newsletter. Because Mrs. Miller didn't want cross her husband, all she could do was hope that maybe if she dropped enough hints, calling the girls sisters and such, Kay would eventually realize on her own what had happened. And both Marti and Sue worried that the families they'd always thought were theirs would still want to keep them. It's really nice to meet you. A child is a child. And so I kind of made a promise to myself that. Reverend Miller is affectionate with her, putting his arm around her waist. He is a doctor. And is the reason because Marty brought something important to your family, you cheated. Again, Martha Miller, who now goes by Marti, who once was the baby who sneezed five times in a row. They were nice enough when she spoke to them on the phone, but they weren't exactly welcoming her into the family. Florida Woman Who Was Switched at Birth Opens Up About Her Life Post-Scandal: 'I Couldn't Handle the Resentment' In 1989, Kimberly Mays became a media sensation when genetic tests revealed. You know, we opened up more to each other and, you know, we had the same personality and we think so much alike. more. She had joked every day, and you keep us laughing. And at the same time, you have a new mom or new daughter, it is not so clear what you're supposed to do with this new parent or new child who's now in your life. And I took that as, OK, I'm saying as of right now, you're not our kid. I can still wonder why and probably never will know why it didn't come up any sooner. This American Life: Switched at Birth - Media Centre - BBC And quoting scriptures all the time for me to read to console me, because I had said that I had I had shed a lot of tears and and I had probably all of the emotions that you have with death in a family. Every day she was at the hospital, the nurses brought her the same baby girl. On the positive side, Switched at Birth does like to include American Sign Language. She brought happiness. So you look like her, too? Mark Twain. This is a videotape of that first meeting. And I wanted to be a cheerleader, you know, I didn't get picked. And all needed glasses for nearsightedness, Martha did not need glasses. There was nothing any further. It was confusing. Never had that happen with any of our others. Even if she could somehow convince everyone it was true, what would happen if you suddenly took a six-month-old away from the only mother she knew? And you looked so much like Carol. As for Marti, she doesn't like to dwell on the notion that Sue might have been the one who lucked out. He just has crazy ideas and he dreams these things up. By the time she was five or six, there wasn't much money around. I can't tell you how hard it was, but I got me all along. She's part of that odd family. Note: This American Life is produced for the ear and designed to be heard. For the longest time, whenever she would write to me, she would include McDonald in my name. I don't know how I would have survived. And she said, Oh, no, no. The series, in which Ms. Leclerc plays a teenager who lost her hearing as a young child, has been off the air for more than a year . But in the end, she made the trip because she's a Miller and so is Sue and she's a McDonald and so is Sue. The infants were accidentally switched, and went home with the wrong families. IMDb is the world's most popular and authoritative source for movie, TV and celebrity content. I tried out for cheerleading. I don't know how I would have survived. So then you had to go through the register to get to the bathroom. At one point toward the end of the party, as Sue stood nearby, Marty started talking about the room that she had grown up in. It was pretty concealed right within our own church. And that was odd, very odd. I only had one daughter and she had five daughters. He didn't dance with me. The Millers were at the McDonalds' anniversary party. The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) is excited to share the remarkable news of an all American Sign Language episode to happen on Monday, March 4th on mainstream television! And my mother's like, what happened to my life? And I was always asking anyone who might have seen her. If you are able, we strongly encourage you to listen to the audio, which includes emotion and emphasis that's not on the page. On a summer day in 1951, two baby girls were born in a hospital in small-town Wisconsin. Besides her, there was Mary Lydia, Faith, Ruth, Sonny, Luke, and Esther. This American Life. best time of year to see turtles in oahu. Mr. McDonald's health didn't allow it. And he did. Her name's also Sue. And then she's going to say, well, I don't need that daughter anymore. Your service title Give us a brief description of the service that you are promoting. Yes I did. Our program was produced today by Jane Marie and myself, our staff for today's show includes Alex Blumberg, Sarah Koenig, Seth Lind, Lisa Pollak, Robin Semion. And I thought she even walks like Mary. I changed your diaper and my mother, nothing was going to be different between us. And it is a much smaller family, just two kids. It was a different life. And I wanted to be a cheerleader. And like my dad said, you know, you are my child. this american life switched at birth transcript. And the family never went on vacation or even to the movies. And then after I knew that I had been switched and that I had different genes, and my parents kept talking about these people that were so odd, the Millers, because Reverend Miller, he is an evangelical preacher. Transcript; Share; This American Life. This was the side of the family she was raised with, but she seemed tense, watching as Marty made the rounds, everybody laughing, having the two of them so near each other was a little awkward. That's just how she is. Yeah. For one thing, she was the only one who joked around. The show ended abruptly after 5 seasons. Coming up, what it's like to be a mom and to learn at the age of 69 that your only daughter isn't actually your daughter at all. A week or so after the baby's birth, I was reaching for something way back in the attic closet and started to hemorrhage, then went into convulsions, back to the hospital for several days and despair for my life. My mom said, oh, well, you just take after great grandpa this year and so on. Four Ages in Life. Right before the service began, she says, there's Sue walking down the center aisle. All the girls were in the same room. He danced with her. Here's Jake Halpern. And the feeling in their house was very different from the feeling in the Miller's house. Ecce Mono | Switched at Birth Wiki | Fandom Tells the story of two teen girls who discover that they were accidentally switched at birth. The two moms and the two daughters who were affected more than anyone. And I don't know that she was as excited about it as I was. And I don't think sue had that sense. You know, I I honestly don't know how much they communicate, how much they're in touch. No. That is why I wanted to write this letter. Hopefully, in the years the show has been on, it has influenced people to give the beautiful language a try. My sister Faith called. But I kept looking for her and I was always asking anyone who might have seen her, and that day when I would go down, have any touch with the McDonald's, we we got introduced to them, I, I tried to talk to her about it and she she told somebody that I was crazy. And when Bob found out about Marti, found out that she was his biological sister, he called her right away in California. I didn't get picked. Here's Bob McDonald who remember, was having these great phone calls with his newfound sister. And so in this half of the story, we hear from the mothers. She had both families wanting to make sure that, you know, she was included in their family. The nurse weighed the baby and must have left her in the delivery room until after Kay's baby was born very soon after mine. And she kept it quiet all those years. Well, when your husband said to you, this baby's cute, let's keep it. I thought I was losing both of them. I have much anguish and many tears, but I feel I must get this out in the open so you to know how wonderful that you both are, Christians and great workers in the church. A month and a half later, she wrote the letter. Actually, my mother wanted to go to court and have my name legally changed back to Sue McDonald and have Sue's name changed. And things are good with Mrs. Miller too. You're their kid. She wrote letters to her parents but didn't send them. Text. The family did all kinds of hobbies, painting and rock polishing and 3D photography. Martha excelled in music, was a great cheerleader at school, very popular, and a blonde. She figured if she could simply get Kate a look at Marti Caywood figure things out, the evening just ended up being kind of baffling for everyone involved. Between ourselves, Ruth and me, we, or at least I, always figured you lucked out. this american life switched at birth transcript One of the toughest things both Marty and Sue have to deal with is logistical. I mean, she that was right. I changed your diaper. Well, no, I wasn't afraid of him. I tried out for cheerleading. The two little girls ended up in wrong families and only became aware of their biological parents 43 years later when Mrs. Miller decides to write a letter to them . I'm Ira Glass. Mary says she felt like everything she was interested in was lost on her parents. I felt they were trying to take her away from us. And basically-- and this is going to sound like kind of a small thing, but it was a big thing to me-- she circled the names of people that were participating in the program. This brings us to Marty, the other baby in this baby switch, before she found out the truth about who her mother really was, Bardes life wasn't all that different from Seus already was also married, also had three kids. For our 25th Anniversary, a favorite episode from 2008. She's ours now. So I passed it off. And and of course, I was very busy because I was chairperson and I had so many other things to do. I mean, that was right. What are you supposed to be with each other? Did you feel that then after this happened a little bit closer to your dad than your mom? By the time she was well, fixing the baby switch problem was that much harder. And my mother's like, what happened to my life? Watch Switched at Birth TV Show - Streaming Online | Freeform And when you get this kind of news as an adult, that your mom isn't really your mom or your daughter isn't really your daughter, and at the same time, you have a new mom or a new daughter, it is not so clear what you're supposed to do with this new parent or new child who's now in your life. Yeah. And I was kind of stunned. She also had an older brother, Bob, named after their dad. Well, sure, I guess, a little built of guilt, but it's not my fault. ", So she's basically saying to you, you may have actually gotten a break here being in the family that--. She told me that she even started calling around trying to find someone who'd be a mother to her six children. I've forgiven them, but that doesn't mean that I've forgotten. No, I guess I haven't, because I knew. I was a crazy woman who thought I had her girl. Kay McDonald is still tight with Sue, the daughter she raised, but she's also much closer with Marti. I don't have any idea. When I first talked to Mrs. Miller about what had happened when Marty was born, she told me pretty much the same story. So that that convinced you. After they were born, she had written us a Christmas letter and said she'd always liked to keep in touch with Susan, because the girls were so much like sisters. Conspiracy theories about the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin continue to shape Israel's politics and future. She heard it first from her own mom, who heard it at church. I don't care whether my husband objected or not. That's how Mrs. Miller kept track of Sue. She'd also moved out of Wisconsin, in her case to Southern California. I really only thought about that one time, I only let myself think about it one time, it was actually right after I met them and I was going back to my my mother's house. Yeah, what was your room like? During this time, it was Marty's dad, Reverend Miller, who reassured her they started talking on the phone a lot. Bay grew up in a wealthy family while Daphne, who lost her hearing as a child, was raised by a single mom in a working class neighborhood. And so I don't think that was too well received. But I went along with it because. She remembers Marty always lightening the mood in their house as a kid. He just came out with it. As a result, Marti got worried about one of the most basic facts of her life secondhand, all the while waiting to hear directly from her mother. She was losing blood and having spasms. She wasn't trying to be hurtful. In the episode, reporter Jake Halpern introduces us to a story of two baby girls who were accidentally . When I weighed the baby, she weighed two and a half pounds less than her birth weight. It got so bad, Kay had to go on medication for high blood pressure. But that's all she said. I think what we do is pretty much our own doing. Then when Ruth was about 16, her older sister, Faith, came home from a trip on a Mississippi River boat and told Ruth she'd seen Sue McDonald on the boat, and then she looked an awful lot like them. Mr MacDonald's health didn't allow it. And keep his friendship, you know, if I turn against him, like, gotten on that. Well, my sisters had this crazy thing going on when they were when Faith was a teenager, she would push the dresser and the cedar chest against the door. We love you, Martha Jane, as dearly as our other six children. She denied, she says, oh, no, no, that's not true. This American Life. Yeah, I wanted him to agree with me. So the two girls cooked up a reconnaissance mission. The McDonalds are the light-haired ones from the letter. I couldn't do anything. Reverend Miller had made many visits to Dr. Dislocates wife when she was sick, and now Dr. Deathlok refused to charge the Millers for anything.