As a little girl, Alicia Mae Holloway daydreamed about her birth mother. What did she look like? Where did she live? Did she have any other children?
“All I knew was that I was adopted the day I was born,” Holloway, 28, told TODAY.com.
Holloway, a ballerina who appeared on season 25 of “The Bachelor,” grew up in Morgantown, West Virginia. She describes her parents Evelyn and Kenny as the salt of the earth.
“My mom and dad are the most incredible people in the world,” Holloway says. “I really hit the jackpot with those two.”
Alicia Mae Holloway with her adoptive mother Evelyn on the day she was born.
With a closed adoption there is no contact between the biological parents and adoptive families. Holloway was conceived during her married biological mother’s affair with another man, and they decided to tell people that she was stillborn.
“People will say to me, ‘It’s so terrible that she said you died, but you know, I think she was just doing the best she could, and I’m not mad at her,'” Holloway says. “And you have to remember that I have had a wonderful life. I thank God every day for my parents.’
During the transfer at the hospital, Holloway said her birth mother unexpectedly became emotional. At the time, she believed she would never see her daughter again. Then Evelyn took her aside and promised to send a letter and photos every six months.
Evelyn kept her word and for seventeen years she sent semi-annual updates to her daughter’s birth mother.
“It gives me chills to think about how she watched me grow up and I had no idea,” Holloway says. “She knew I was a dancer, that I did beauty pageants and that I was a good kid.”
Alicia Mae Holloway (with her adoptive parents) is a professional ballet dancer in New York City.
The day before Holloway turned 18, she met her birth mother for the first time. Holloway was shocked when she felt no immediate connection with the woman she shares DNA with. She expected a tearful scene like in the movies. She didn’t get one, but her mother did.
“But when she and my mom hugged, they had a long, long, long hug and they were both crying their eyes out,” Holloway said in a TikTok video.
“What my mother did for my birth mother was an act of love,” Holloway tells TODAY.
At the end of their reunion, Holloway thanked her birth mother.
“I was like, ‘Thank you for choosing the two best parents for me,’ ‘Thank you for giving me this beautiful, wonderful life,’” Holloway remembers. “And I told her I was so grateful that she made the decision to place me for adoption.”
This article was originally published on TODAY.com
