Mary Ann Hernandez Mullen is on a mission to find her mother in the Philippines.

For the last five decades she believed that she was the natural child of her Canadian parents. But recently, she found documents that led her to the truth: she was adopted and her real mother is a Filipina, media in Manila said.

Mullen, who was born in the Philippines in the late 1950s, was already 49 years old when she discovered that she was an adoptee. She obtained her original birth certificate, adoption papers, and various documents from both the Philippine and Canadian governments.

“Everyone in my adoptive family knew, but I was the last to find out,” Mullen said in a website (constanciatibayonhernandez.com) she created for her search for her biological mother, Constancia Tibayon Hernandez, who still lives in the Philippines as the Fil-Canadian believes.

Mullen also learned that she has an older brother and sister named Jose and Normina Hernandez, who was born in 1939.

On her website, Mullen writes:

“I was born in Manila, Philippines in the late 1950s. I always believed I was the natural child of my Canadian parents, (Joseph Francis) Frank and Lydia (Leda) Mullen. It was not until I was 49 years old that I found documents which led me to the truth: I was an adoptee.

Everyone in my adoptive family knew, but I was the last to find out.

In the 1960s and early 1970s I attended International School (American School) in Manila. During those years, several people would repeatedly ask me if I had an identical “sister,” but I would deny it vehemently. I was brought up as an only child and believed that I did not have any siblings. I had asked my adoptive mother several times if I was adopted, but was always told that I wasn’t.

My father, Frank Mullen, worked as a manager for Mobil Oil and my mother, Lydia Mullen, was a Russian emigre, a housewife, who played mahjong with the other ladies in her neighbourhood. We lived first in Pasay City and then later in Forbes Park and Belair.

I have obtained my original birth certificate, adoption papers, and various documents from both the Philippine and Canadian governments. I now know that I have an older brother and sister: Jose Hernandez, and Normina Hernandez. I would dearly love to find them and meet them. I also know from my birth certificate that the name of my natural mother is Constancia Tibayon Hernandez, born October 1939. I would dearly love to meet her, if she is living, and any of her family.

At the very least, I would like to find out what happened to Constancia, Jose, and Normina, even if they do not wish to meet me. I understand they may have emigrated to the United States or another country. Or they may have remained in the Philippines. Some of you may remember me from school or may even know my true story and my relatives.

“I would dearly love to find them and meet them,”