madamekelly

When I was born, my father was an active duty Marine, stationed in San Diego, California. I was always told that I was born on Mexican soil because my mother went into labor while waiting in line to return to the US at the border. When I was eleven, I needed my birth certificate because the schools were requiring them that year. When we tried to send for one we were told that there wasn’t one. There have been two stories told to me about why. One story is that the Balboa Naval hospital where the Navy kept the records had burned to the ground, taking my birth certificate original with it. The other story is that my birth was never recorded, because of where I was born. At the time I needed the certificate, The state of California required one of my parents to appear before a notary in the state of California to swear an affidavit testifying to the particulars of my birth. Since my mother lived there, she did it (we lived in Washington state at the time). When we finally got a copy, we discovered that sometime after my mother walked away, my absent minded father had skipped one of my birthdays, so I turned twelve and thirteen the same day. Lol. I have never desired to travel outside the United States, which is a good thing, because even the DMV had problems accepting my “Abstract of Live Birth” that the state of California issued for me. I do not have a birth certificate, I only have the “Abstract of live Birth” that California issued. Trying to explain why I don’t have a “birth certificate” is a nightmare each time it comes up.

*(By the way, my “Absract of Live Birth” only lists my mother, there is no line for my father’s name.)