Adopted Aucklander hopes to reunite with Hungarian birth mother after 41 years | Stuff.co.nz

A man who found the identity of his birth mother after 41 years of searching says he can’t wait to finally meet her in person.

Auckland resident Jozsef Szabo, 49, was adopted as a baby in Hungary in 1974. His mother, Ilona Huszar, gave him up because she couldn’t keep him.

After finally tracking her down last year, she has had a heart scare and he’s determined to reunite with her again before it's too late.

From the age of 8, Szabo knew he was adopted after his parents told him he wasn’t their son by birth.

“My adopted family raised me in very hard conditions,” he said.

“From very early on, my family told me that I wasn’t their son.”

When Szabo moved to New Zealand at 25, he was eager to leave his childhood behind.

However, after starting his own family, he decided to begin the search for his birth mother again.

“My parents are old now, and they brought up my adoption again. I felt sad about it and started to think about it,” Szabo said.

“My wife and little girl encouraged me to try looking for her again. It hasn’t been easy.”

He asked the Hungarian government to help track Huszar down, but it took at least a year to finally hear back.

Szabo finally got her number just before Christmas last year.

“I texted her first and got an immediate response.

“She gave birth to me in a country that was heavily ruled by Communists. Everything was very different in those days, I couldn’t even imagine what it was like.”

He said when Huszar found out she was pregnant, her parents told her to have an abortion.

Huszar refused, but was told she couldn’t take her baby home.

“My mother was devastated, she had no choice but to place me in an orphan village until she could take me back when her family situation got better. I was adopted when I was 3 years old.

“A year after that she started looking for me, but I wasn’t at the orphanage any more.”

Szabo’s birth mother suffered a heart attack early this year and time is running out for their reunion.

After undergoing a surgery himself for a rotator cuff injury, he had to stop working and hopes a Givealittle page will help fund his trip to Hungary.

He plans to take his daughter with him.

“My mother is a lovely woman with a beautiful smile. I finally got some closure after I found her, we finally found each other, I want to go back to Hungary to see her in person, but I can't afford the trip.

“There’s a lot of mixed feelings, because she’s my mother but I hardly know her. I hope we can sit down and finally reconnect again after so many years.”