'Emotional' folk song for Reading train station foundling

BBC News

3 days ago

A man who was abandoned at a train station as a baby has said a song written about his story was "very emotional".Tom was left in the waiting room at Reading train station in 1965 when he was two weeks old, swaddled in blankets with spare milk and nappies.Now 60, he has had a song written about his story for BBC Radio 2's 21st Century Folk, which celebrates people whose lives have been influenced by trains as part of Railway 200."I couldn't image what a beautiful song [musicians Chris While and Julie Matthews] wrote and performed," he said.
Tom, who now lives in Nottingham, was brought up by adoptive parents and did not ask to see his adoption file until the age of 44.It revealed he was left at Reading Station and contained a police report as well as articles from the local press."There was a birth certificate which was totally blank, so no parents, no date of birth, and no knowledge of where I actually came from," he said.He approached the ITV documentary show Long Lost Family, who found out his parents were from Ireland, but his mother lived in London.Tom said he presumed he had been left at the station because he was born out of wedlock."It was impossible to bring [illegitimate babies] up because there was no support financially for women at that time," he said."Apparently [my mum] was wandering round for about an hour, so I guess right up until the end she didn't really want to give me up."Tom then connected with some family - including a cousin on his mother's side, who was also a foundling, having been left outside a church."I think we'll always be quite connected because of that situation," he said.
'Broke our hearts'
Folk musicians While and Matthews are Britain's longest-enduring female duo and have played more than 2,500 gigs over 30 years.While said Tom's story "broke out hearts".Matthews said she wanted the song, titled The Waiting Room, to convey that emotional trauma, but also the fact that Tom was loved and had "a really happy life"."His biological mum made the ultimate sacrifice of herself because she loved him so much," she said."And his adopted mum, she was so proud of him and loved him so much that we thought 'this is a great angle to take' - the two women in his life that loved him so much."
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