67. Pamela Hasegawa: "The Adoption Laws Need To Get Real."

Pam was born in the early 1940s in New York City. She grew to age 5 in Manhattan and Connecticut, and by the time she reached junior high school, her family settled in Barrington, Illinois. Her mother died when she was 12 of a massive heart attack.

Fast forward to 1959, Pam's first year at college. When she signed up for creative writing, she had no idea she would be opening a door to thinking about her origins when the professor assigned students an essay imagining where they would be, and what they would be doing, four years after graduation.

Pam would go on for three decades to change the adoption laws in New Jersey which led to adoptees in that state being granted the right to request their original birth certificates. She credits her relationship with Florence Fisher in NYC being the beginning of her outstanding efforts in the adoption community with all members of the constellation. She continues to make contributions to support her fellow adoptees in their adoption journey.

Music by Corey Quinn