| A true child of the world returns to Pitt |
By Nikki Coffee |
Published
10/19/2006
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Entertainment
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Quest for truth spans three continents
Thomas Brooks never knew he was poor growing up as a young child in the Pittsburgh area. Finances may have been lacking, but love certainly wasn’t. Raised by a divorced, hard-working woman, Brooks had the support and security of an extended family, the necessities of life and life was good.
But at age 11, he was told something that would change the world as he then knew it; his life would never be the same. It was that year when the woman he had known as Mom, informed him she wasn’t Mom; at least not biologically.
His adoptive mother knew few details regarding his birth, just that his biological parents were interracial. It would be 14 years before the yearning to discover his background got the best of him. He said he wasn’t in any way dismissing or discounting what his adoptive mother had done for him, but he just had to know who his birth parents were.
“I had a growing need to know more about my biological background. Felt own human identity was partially lacking,” he remembered.
In a quest that spans three continents, Brooks goes on to tell his inspiring story in his book, “A Wealth of Family: An Adopted Son’s International Quest for Heritage, Reunion and Enrichment.” In this candid memoir, Brooks takes readers through his childhood, his struggles with race, coming of age during the 1970s and his quest for his identity. His story is multicultural as well as multifaceted as Brooks relays his “poor boy works hard and succeeds” angle.
Now a Texas resident, Brooks returns home Oct. 20 for a Meet and Speak at noon at the University of Pittsburgh’s Book Center, 4000 Fifth Ave. in Oakland.
In search of his “human identity,” Brooks, after much research, found the agency that handled his adoption and from there the doors to his origin began to open. He learned that his 19-year-old Lithuanian Jewish biological mother had given him up for adoption soon after his birth. The records revealed his father was from Kenya. Both his biological parents were college students at the time of his birth.
Fueled now with burning curiosity, Brooks corresponded with a former employee of the adoption agency who initiated contact between Brooks and his biological mother, who now lived in England. Delicate at first, after two months of letters, and phone calls, Brooks and his natural mother, Dorothy Blazier-Wallstein, were reunited. Then it was on to find his biological father, Mboga Mageka Omwenga. It would take two trips to Kenya before that reunion took place.
After meeting his parents, he learned that he was no longer an only child but has seven siblings spread out around the world.
Brooks said he wrote the book because friends showed great interest in the story and his travels.
“I thought it would be a story that could help people find strength in their own challenges and self-discovery from two points: one as an adopted individual and the other from a multicultural experience,” he said.
It took Brooks six years, beginning with the research, to writing process to complete his work.
Now married with two children, Brooks said he hopes his experiences and heritage will lay a fine foundation for his children in life. His adoptive mother, Joan Brooks, still resides in Pittsburgh.
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