Woman searching for mom for decades

For Latanya Burnett, 39, and her brother Keona, 38, the last memory of their mother, Chrystal Smith, was in 1987 when she wrote their father a letter from the US.

Since then, they have not heard from Smith and their wish is to one day meet her.

"Just thinking about reuniting with her brings me so much joy and get me teary," Burnett told THE STAR. "Not knowing a father is the norm but not knowing a mother just doesn't feel right and there is a difference if she is dead."

The story told to her by her dad, Oswin, now 61, was that he met Smith in 1980 when she visited Jamaica from her East Orange, New Jersey, home in the US.

"My dad was a taxi driver at the time and he saw her walking on a street somewhere in Red Hills Road so he moved in on her and then they started seeing each other," Burnett said.

The two occasionally visited each other at Pembroke Hall where Smith was living. In 1981, Smith, who was 16 at the time, got pregnant with her first child and was soon expecting a second.

"It's three months after I was born she got pregnant with my brother," Burnett said. However, in 1985, life took an unexpected twist and Smith was forced to return to the US, leaving the children behind.

Burnett said she grew up in Grants Pen, St Andrew, with her father and stepmother. She said that she used to receive letters from a neighbour, but whenever she brought them to her stepmother, she would rip them up.

"My mom was writing to us at the time and sending pictures but my dad didn't know about the letters at all," she said. "So I guess because she (Smith) was writing and not getting any response so she just stopped."

Their stepmother died in 1990 and the rest of the family migrated to Canada in 1998. The siblings were actively trying to locate their mother even then.

"All my life I have been searching for her but it is weighing on me harder to find her now that I have my own kids and they keep asking where they are from," Burnett said. "I never have any animosity towards her because first she was young, and I just don't know the real story behind everything." She believes her mother is 55 now but not too old to meet her children.

"I don't know if she wants to know us and maybe she is looking for us but don't know where to start to find us. I just need closure to fill this emptiness inside because I heard that she loved us and took really good care of us when she had in us Jamaica," she said.

Latanya Burnett is asking Chrystal Smith or anyone who may know her whereabouts to contact her by email at latanya92@outlook.com