Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 17, 1991 TAG: 9103170059
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SARASOTA, FLA. LENGTH: Medium
"The preliminary script we reviewed for the movie had a happy ending, and it's our hope that the real-life story will have a happy ending also," said John Blakely, an attorney who is seeking visitation rights for the biological parents of Kimberly, a hazel-eyed sixth-grader.
But Bob Mays, who raised the girl from birth only to discover he was not her biological father, is worried Ernest and Regina Twigg want shared custody of his only child.
"We're still on our roller coaster ride," Mays said.
The stories of two families who unknowingly raised the other's child for more than nine years is being made into a television miniseries to be aired over two nights on NBC, likely in early May, producer Michael O'Hara said.
Kimberly, born at a tiny rural hospital in central Florida, went home with the wrong parents - Mays and his late wife, Barbara, who died of cancer in 1981. The girl born to the Mayses, whom the Twiggs named Arlena, died of a heart defect in 1988. Just before Arlena's death, genetic tests showed she was not the Twiggs' biological daughter.
Their search for their biological daughter led them back to Hardee Memorial Hospital in Wauchula, where Barbara Mays and Regina Twigg gave birth within days of each other in winter 1978.
The Twiggs' quest eventually led to a three-year custody battle over Kimberly.
Genetic tests showed the Twiggs were Kimberly's biological parents, and psychologists were brought in to make recommendations if and when meetings should occur.
Since last June, there have been at least five meetings between Kimberly and the Twiggs and their seven other children, ages 8 through 23, attorneys said.
Both sides agreed the kids got along fine, but not so with the adults dealing with the sensitive scars the ordeal has carved.
In November, Mays stopped the visitations.
He said it was a temporary move, at least through January, because he had grounded the youth for falling grades and mood swings he didn't understand.
Noting the bitterness between the two sides, O'Hara said it was "a miracle" to get the two families to agree on the script.
"I tell two parallel stories," he said. "In 1978 two people are leaving the hospital and get on two trains. By the end of the first night the two trains collide. The second night deals with the emotional debris left all over the tracks."
The movie ends with the first meeting.
by CNB