Dimitris was born in Greece 68 years ago, was adopted by an American couple and grew up as Meryl Jenkins and recently, after years of efforts, he was reunited with his biological family in Patras
Dimitris was born in Greece – in a village of Patras – 68 years ago and at the age of a few days he was found on the steps of a church with only a note of identification that read: “he is baptized, his name is Mitso”.
Almost 24 hours later he was transferred to the Patras Orphanage, from where he was adopted by an American couple when he was 11 months old.
“Mitsos” grew up lovingly as Merrill Jenkins in Missouri, USA.
He knew from a young age that he was adopted and, growing up, he made many attempts to find his biological family in Greece, but to no avail.
At the age of 68, after a decade of searching, he was reunited with his biological family (mainly cousins and their children), who opened their arms to welcome him with much joy, love and emotion.
The search lasted a decade
The calendar read March 12, 2011. It was a rainy day and Meryl Jenkins was lost in thought having lost his wife just last September. A bit of the cloudy weather that cold spring morning, a bit of the heavy mood from the great loss he had experienced, and Merrill felt the need to search for his roots.
“That morning I was sitting in front of the computer and decided to type “Patras orphanage”, looking for information. I’ve done this 2-3 times before, with nothing interesting coming up. This time, in the list of results appeared a New York Times article from 1996, talking about the “stolen children” of the Patras orphanage. I had never heard anything about it. I read the article with my mouth hanging open… I felt the need to start digging into my past and see what I could find. I went into the basement and looked for my adoption file, which my parents had kept, and spent the rest of the day in front of a computer screen,” Merrill recounts.
He immediately contacted an organization in Greece to help him with his research, while at the same time he looked for the file with his information in the records of the relevant US social service.
“I was hoping to find evidence in this file but unfortunately there was no other information or names,” he says.
Two years later, in 2013, he decided to take a DNA test on Ancestry, but all he could find were some very distant cousins. He didn’t give up and in 2018 he decided to upload his details to other related websites, such as My Heritage, to see if he could find anything more.
Then Eftychia Noula (Linda Carol Forrest), the active president of “The Eftychia Project” (a non-profit organization, which since 2019 helps children of Greek origin adopted in the USA to find their roots) and his close friend Meryl advised him to take another DNA test, this time at 23andme, which led him to find a first cousin.
His cousin lived in Montreal, Canada, but unfortunately for Meryl, his father, with whom it seems they had blood ties, had passed away… The communication with him slowly “faded”, but not the hope that he will eventually find his biological family. And he was right!
One of the searches brought him into contact with a woman who lived nearby in the United States, whose husband was apparently Meryl’s cousin.
Steve was originally from Drosia, a small local community in the wider municipality of Erymanthos, in Achaia, and it was this element that finally “unlocked” the riddle of Meryl’s story.
At the end of the thread
Wanting to help her friend, Eftychia, together with Maria, a volunteer at “The Eftychia Project”, found themselves at the beginning of last September in the cafe of Drosia to drink coffee and answer the persistent questions of an old man about what brings them at the village. “Drosia is a small mountain village in Tritaia. It’s not a pass, when someone goes there, they go for a reason. That’s why the man asked us: what are you girls?”, describes Maria in a smooth way. So they answered him that they had come from the United States to see the village of a friend of theirs.
“He asked us his name, we answered him and from then on he told us everything!”, he says enthusiastically, explaining that luckily the whole family (from the father’s side) lives in Patras, while one of the cousins he owns a tavern in Vrachneika.
“We went to the tavern and there we had to tell the truth. We explain to her who we are, what we do, and whether she can talk her aunts and uncles into agreeing to a DNA test. The girl was shocked as she had never heard anything related. At one point, in fact, he cried,” explains Eftychia who remembers like today the day when Meryl’s cousins took the test and the results came out.
“They started saying ‘he is ours, he is our brother’ and anxiously asking when he will come to Greece!”, emphasizes Eftychia – also adopted in the USA – who has been enjoying the love and comfort of her own biological family for years .
The welcome that filled his soul
Meryl came to Greece to meet his cousins on October 31, with Eftychia meeting him at the airport.
A day after his arrival in Greece, Meryl was surrounded by dozens of members of his extended biological family (primarily cousins and their children), who organized a large welcome party in a Patras restaurant to welcome their man and ” drown” in flowers, hugs and kisses.
“The first time I met them in the tavern in Patras, it was something special. The love they showed me was unprecedented. Greeks are very warm, especially with their family. I immediately felt like I had returned home. They are all great,” says Merrill to APE-MPE, the emotion in his voice evident.
The return to Drosia and the father who died…unfortunately
One of the most emotionally charged moments of Meryl’s journey was returning to his village. “I had seen what Drosia looks like on google street view, but it was another thing to see the village up close, knowing the ties you have with it. I love the mountain scenery and looking at the houses and the surrounding area I was thinking about what it would be like if I had stayed there. I really liked the feeling of “belonging” that I felt when I arrived at this place”, he says.
Returning to the village may have been emotionally charged, but perhaps the hardest part for him is knowing that his father died without having any more children and without knowing his own existence.
“Apparently his father was a bachelor, never knew he got some girl pregnant, got married, had no children and died not knowing that somewhere in the United States his biological son lives. In fact, he had many nieces, whom he adored,” explains Maria.
RES-EMP
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I have worked as a journalist for over 10 years, and my work has been featured on many different news websites. I am also an author, and my work has been published in several books. I specialize in opinion writing, and I often write about current events and controversial topics. I am a very well-rounded writer, and I have a lot of experience in different areas of journalism. I am a very hard worker, and I am always willing to put in the extra effort to get the job done.
