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After searching for 20 years, Marina Chicksi-Mangalana has finally found the son she gave up for adoption in 1984. Chicksi-Mangalana of Tuktoyaktuk is pictured here with her two-year-old daughter Carlina Raddi and photos of her son Ryan Zinck and daughter Charlene, 21, who tracked her brother down on the Internet. - Chris Hunsley/NNSL photo

Daughter's dream fulfills mother's hope

Chris Hunsley
Northern News Services

Tuktoyaktuk (Mar 28/05) - For Marina Chicksi-Mangalana, 20 years of searching and sadness ended with a simple phone call.

Although a dry, nervous throat prevented her from saying much, the tears in her eyes spoke volumes.

"He said 'Hi Mom,' and I just started crying," said Chicksi-Mangalana of the first time she spoke to her 21-year-old son, Ryan Zinck, who she gave up for adoption in August 1984.

The 42-year-old Tuktoyaktuk woman located her first-born son earlier this month, just as her daughter, Charlene, had predicted three years earlier.

"I just can't believe it," said Chicksi-Mangalana as she recounted how, at the age of 18, Charlene claimed she would find Zinck before her 21st birthday, though she had no knowledge of his whereabouts or his last name,

That birthday passed March 13, two days after she found her brother living on the other side of the country, in Charlottetown, P.E.I.

"Isn't that eerie?" was Terry Zinck, Ryan's adoptive father's first thought. "It's so damn cool."

"Marina gave him up because she wanted to see Ryan hopefully do well," said Terry, who'd travel from Fredericton, N.B., with his wife Diane to Tuk all those years ago to pick up the 15-month-old baby.

"But we lost total touch, she was going through some tough times then."

Chicksi-Mangalana explained she felt adoption was the best option as she was in and out of jail at that point in her life. Nine months after giving up her son, she was released from custody.

"I wanted to find Ryan right then, but I couldn't remember the name of the people I'd given him to. I really drank and suffered then. I couldn't help it, I didn't have any help at that time."

Chicksi-Mangalana did know, however, that her son was on the East Coast. For years she made random phone calls to Newfoundland, without any luck or leads, asking whoever would listen whether they knew her son.

"It made me so sad," said Chicksi-Mangalana, who almost lost hope of ever finding her son.

"But I used to watch Peter Popoff back then, so I wrote to him," she said of the televangelist. "He wrote me back and told me not to give up and that I'd find Ryan."

With renewed spirit, Chicksi-Mangalana, eventually joined by Charlene, plodded on to no avail. Until one day last February when Charlene found a website that displayed a picture of Diane Zinck.

"I thought it could be her," said Chicksi-Mangalana, who recognized the face of the woman she'd met for only a few days in the mid-1980s.

One nervous phone call later, her search was over.

"It never bothered us a bit," said Terry of hearing from Chicksi-Mangalana after so many years.

After a brief chat, he passed the message along to his son, who made contact with his Northern family later that week.

"We were kind of glad for Ryan's sake that they contacted him, because he was talking about contacting them."

Adoptive parents support search

Although Zinck never made any attempts to find his birth parents, his adoptive family had always been open with him about his origins and his biological parents.

After his recent graduation from Holland College with a diploma in business information technology, however, he thought he would look into some of the job and beneficiary opportunities available to him in the North.

"It was kind of a surprise that they found me," said Zinck from his home in P.E.I.

"I was going to try to find her (Chicksi-Mangalana) just a week after they found me, to tell them I was planning a vacation up North this summer. My dad's ex-RCMP so I was going to ask him to help track them down."

With both families now in regular contact via telephone - Zinck having promised to call his birth mother once a week - plans for a summer meeting are coming together.

"I don't think it's going to change my life or anything to meet them," Zinck said. "But I have thought about them now and then."

Along with his mother, sister Charlene who was a mere few months old at his departure and two-year-old sister Carlina, Zinck also hopes to meeting his biological father during his return to the North.

Chicksi-Mangalana is currently trying to determine the man's whereabouts.

"(Ryan's) got lots of aunts and uncles here who are excited to meet him, too," said Chicksi-Mangalana.

"But I'm greedy for him right now though, so I may keep him all to myself."

For the mother of three, summer could not come soon enough, but a heart filled with joy will keep her strong until the day she once again folds her arms around her first born.

"I wanted to tell this story for all the other mothers out there who are missing their children. Don't give up."