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Moody, Margaret 1977; Motherwell Scotland 31 YO
Topic Started: Jul 26 2010, 12:40 AM (495 Views)
monkalup
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The Old Heifer! An oxymoron, of course.
[ *  *  * ]
http://www.thesun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/s...ut-on-them.html
PRETTY mum Margaret Moody tucked up her children in bed, said goodnight - then walked out on them forever.
That night in 1977 was the last time any of her seven kids saw her.

At some point during the night, Margaret left the family home in Motherwell, leaving them distraught.



Host ... Lorraine Kelly
Thirty-three years on, Margaret's children - who appear on Lorraine Kelly's new STV series on missing mums tonight - still cling to the hope that they'll one day see their beloved mother again.

And this poignant picture of her as a young woman on her wedding day is one of the only photos they have.

Youngest daughter Pamela, 36, from Hamilton, said: "When she left, I was only two or three. I don't have any memories of her.

"It's such a big gaping hole in my life."

Margaret - 31 at the time - had gone missing from home before but only for a few days and she always returned.

The night she left for good, she had argued with her second husband David Moody, now 64.

Her children thought it would be the same as before and she would be back.


They didn't report her missing at the time - thinking she would return one day.

But she never came back. And they have been left haunted by strange moments of hope.

When Margaret's son Jim died of leukaemia 16 years ago, there were sightings of a mystery woman with red hair at at his funeral.

An unexplained black-and-white photo of a woman with a boy turned up in Jim's open casket - and then disappeared.

Dad-of-six Robert, 41, admits he's spent every day since the funeral looking for his mum.



Secrets ... Margaret at her wedding
Wattie Cheung He even looked out his birth certificate and discovered she had an unusual maiden name - Polland Bell.

He said: "I tried putting it into internet search engines but found nothing.

"I have eight years of memories of her. I don't know whether she's alive or dead.

"I need to know if she's interested in us as a family.

"I'm not angry. She's obviously had her own reasons for what she's done but to leave it this long, that's where the question marks come in.

"If I just got one phone call, at least I would know something, anything."

He added: "A photo of a boy and a woman turned up in Jim's coffin before the funeral, which came as a shock to us.

"There's a lot of talk about that photo.

"Where did it come from? How did it get there? I never saw it. It disappeared again.

"Did Mum turn up because she knew none of us would be about?

"Then there's the woman at the funeral. We didn't know she was there but people said they saw a red-haired woman, much the same description as my mum.

"But she was only there a few minutes and disappeared again.

"It could have been someone else. We don't know."

Robert and Pamela and siblings Richard, 40, Pearl, 38, John, 44, Archie, 43, and Jim - 28 when he died - didn't talk about their mum while growing up.

Dad David was left struggling to bring up the family alone. All talk of his wife was taboo. But as her kids grew up and had families of their own, they finally began to discuss their mother.

And four of them reunite for the heartbreaking documentary Scotland's Missing Mums.

They revisit the family's former home in Clapperhowe Road, Motherwell, for the first time.

Margaret is just one of more than 43,000 Scots who go missing every year - two thirds of them because they choose to vanish without trace.



Anguish ... Robert, Pamela, Pearl and Richard on show
Wishaw CID have an open file on Margaret after the family finally reported her missing in March this year.

Robert, who lives in Blantyre, Lanarkshire, said: "In that day and age, adults ruled over you. I didn't even know where my mum's mum stayed, or her brother. We don't know why she wasn't reported missing.

"To be honest, it's surprising because it's still your kid who went missing."

The years have been particularly tough for Pamela, who, as the youngest, has no mental picture of her mum to cherish.

She said: "When I think about her now, I don't have any anger at all. I think that no matter how scary things are, there is always a way back, there's always a way to fix things and if we do find my mum, I'm sure we'll fix things."

Taxi driver Robert admits he keeps a daily vigil for his missing mother. He said: "Any time I'm in the car and I see somebody with lovely long red hair, the first thing I think of is my mum.


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"You kind of live in hope that one day you will just see her.

"I might be living a pipe dream, but it's a dream I would love to come true.

"It's the not knowing that's eating away at me.

"It's been 33 years. too long without even as much as a phone call or a letter.

"We just want to know if she's still alive or if she wants to know us.

"It would mean the world to every one of us."



Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/s...l#ixzz0ulQSbqLv
photo at link
The photo below are margaret's children
Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
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monkalup
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The Old Heifer! An oxymoron, of course.
[ *  *  * ]
http://z13.invisionfree.com/PorchlightEuro...?showtopic=3402
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Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
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