Nancy was told her baby went to the US. Almost four decades later, they met in Adelaide

In 1987, after agreeing to put her daughter up for adoption, Nancy Loquinario didn’t get to kiss the baby goodbye. At a hospital in the Philippines, the young mother glimpsed the infant’s foot through a glass panel as a nurse took her away.

Nancy prayed that one day, she would meet her daughter again. But it seemed unlikely, and she dared not hope.

It took 36 years, but in 2023, Nancy’s prayer was answered after she and her daughter, Rache Mahon, discovered that they both live in Australia.

“You couldn’t write a better script if you tried,” says Rache, who lives in Ravenswood near Bendigo in Victoria.

The pair felt a bond at their first meeting on April 21 this year in Adelaide, where Nancy lives, that has remained ever since. They have now met four times, and speak online three or four times a week.

Rache says: “I think a lot of people from the outside looking in go, ‘it’s like they’ve always ...’”

“Known each other,” says Nancy, finishing the sentence.

Together again: Rache Mahon with birth mother Nancy Loquinario at Mahon’s home in Ravenswood, Victoria.Credit: Joe Armao

The women’s story is part of The Year I … series, where The Age profiles the experiences of Victorians in 2023.

Looking back, says Rache, 2023 has been a massive year. She knew she was born in the Philippines, and her own three children – and her adoptive parents – encouraged her to look for her birth mother.

Rache’s son Jarvis, 14, said he wanted to meet his Filipino grandparents, uncles and aunties.

Rache knew that nuns at a convent in Quezon City, part of greater Manila, had arranged the adoption. So in March, the family booked a flight for May to go to the Philippines.

But later in March, the nuns emailed Rache to reveal that Nancy was living in Australia. At first, they would only say that she lived one hour away from Melbourne by plane.

At 1am one morning, the nuns sent Rache a photo of Nancy and her three other daughters – Rache’s half-sisters. The nuns also sent Nancy’s address in Adelaide – 640km away from Rache.

The pair exchanged messages online for weeks, then phone calls.Nancy says that a nun had previously told her that her daughter was sent to the US.

‘It’s brought more love’: Nancy, Rache and their family.Credit: Joe Armao

For the emotional reunion on April 21, Rache’s family, including her adoptive parents, hired a mini bus and drove seven hours from Ravenswood to a house in the Adelaide suburb of Unley.

“Nancy turned up and all three of my half-sisters came after, which was beautiful,” Rache says.

“That night we all drank wine and went crazy and danced and sang.”

Describing her excitement, Nancy says: “Being a Catholic, I believe that God answers prayers at the right time. Not too soon, not too late, but in God’s good time.”

Nancy explains that in 1987 she was an unmarried 20-year-old university student, from a strict religious family in Manila.

Rache Mahon as a baby with a nun at an orphanage in Quezon City, Philippines, before she was adopted.

Her devout father said she could either agree to adoption or raise the child under the guise that she was her grandparents’ adopted child. Nancy chose adoption because she didn’t want Rache “to live her life in lies”.

Nancy spent most of her pregnancy living in the convent, under a false name, seeing only her parents. “It was like a prison,” she says.

In 1992, Nancy moved to Australia to join her sister. Nancy had three daughters with her first husband who she later divorced and married Dan Van Gastel.

Nancy says she was devastated at relinquishing her first baby and never forgot her. “Every birthday of hers, August 23, I went to church [and] I asked the priest to say a special intention Mass, offered by me,” she says.

“I prayed always that she’d be safe, and that hopefully a good family had her.”

Rache did have a happy childhood with Australian couple Annabel Johnson and John Pearce, who were both teachers, on an eight-hectare property at Maiden Gully, near Bendigo.

Annabel Johnson (centre) with her kids Rache and Jordan as children.

The family, including Rache’s brother Jordan who passed away 12 years ago, had a menagerie of animals and holidayed at Ocean Grove. She played netball and volleyball and swam. Rache now runs her own skin and beauty clinic, is married to Clint Mahon and has three children.

Her adoptive mother, Annabel, says she sent photos and information about Rache as she grew up to the convent, but they weren’t passed on to Nancy as requested.

Two mums: Rache (centre) with her adoptive mother Annabel Johnson (left) and birth mother Nancy.Credit: Joe Armao

Rache now calls Nancy, affectionately, Nanay, or Mum in the Filipino language, Tagalog. She says Annabel will always be Mum. And John will always be Dad.

Nancy says her Aussie parents did an amazing job raising Mahon.

All the Mahons – plus Pearce and Johnson – went to the Philippines in May, and were embraced by Loquinario’s family, including her father, Ricardo. “It was incredible,” Mahon says.

Loquinario now feels her life is complete. “I always thank the Lord. I’m blessed,” she says.

Mahon says: “I think it’s just that the love has expanded, the family has expanded. It’s brought more love, happiness and joy, to everyone involved.”

In need of some good news? The Greater Good newsletter delivers stories to your inbox to brighten your outlook. Sign up here.