Abducted: The Carlina White Story Page #7

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I've talked to you in my head...

and in my dreams.

All this time,

you been a part of my life.

And you've only just found out

about me.

We'll take it slow.

My name is Joy White,

and I'm here to see Ann Pettway.

- Does she know you're coming?

- No.

Park over there...

we'll put you through security.

I could just slap that smile

off your face.

Is that why you're here?

I came here

because I have to find a way

to forgive you.

Why did you do it to me?

From over here, it don't look

like nothin' been done to you.

What you so upset for?

You got her now.

I may have Carlina now,

but you stole 23 years

of my life.

I wasn't there when Carlina

took her first step.

I didn't get to see her

go to the prom.

I wasn't there when she had

my grandbaby.

Those are moments

I'll never have.

- I lost three babies.

- I lost a child!

I didn't go around

stealin' nobody's babies!

See, that's what I'm sayin'...

you lost one.

I lost three...

I heard you got two more now.

They told me

I couldn't have none.

- That's no excuse!

- I needed that child, okay?

I saw y'all on TV,

and I thought about

givin' her back.

But then Netty

would look up at me.

People started sayin'

we looked alike.

They even called her

"Little Ann. "

Every day, she became

more and more mine.

She wasn't yours...

she was mine!

I fed her!

I clothed her!

I taught her right from wrong!

That little girl

who you paradin' around

on TV and everything...

I did that!

You should be thankin' me.

- I should be thankin' you?

- Thank me!

It's takin' all I got not to

jump across this table

and kill you.

I know you hate me.

And I know, somebody like you,

you'll never understand this.

Somebody like you, you know...

you got a lot of love

in your life.

Me...

I been lovin' people

and lovin' people

and doin' for people...

It's one thing

to love somebody,

but it's another thing

for somebody to love you back.

Netty loved me back.

I ain't ever felt that before.

You could have taken any

other child in that nursery.

Why'd you take mine?

Was it 'cause I was young?

It didn't' have nothin' to do

with you, Ms. White.

It had everything

to do with me!

On August 4, 1987...

I went to Harlem Hospital.

I took a child.

I got back on the train,

I went back home,

And I raised her as my own.

I knew it was wrong.

Ann Pettway.

You've pleaded guilty

to one count of kidnapping.

In light of your confession,

the court hereby sentences you

to 12 years in prison.

That's it?

That's what our suffering's

worth?

I thought it was

a mandatory life sentence.

She plea bargained.

I lost you, I lost my family...

I lost everything.

We gotta appeal this.

We just gotta live with it.

All of it.

I have a few questions

for you, Carlina.

Or would you prefer

I called you Nejdra?

Or Netty?

I'm not Nejdra.

That's the name

that was forced on me.

I'm not Carlina.

That's the name

that was taken from me.

My name is Netty

That's the name that feels

more like me...

...the name that feels

most like home.

Grandma!

It's a story of grief...

Will you please bring my

baby back, please?

...and longing...

Carlina would always be

on my mind every day.

...betrayal...

Where did you get me from?

She destroyed my life

and my family.

...and discovery.

Now to an unbelievable

reunion...

She made this happen herself.

She's the hero in this.

I got my answers now to things

that happened in my life.

But Carlina White's

newfound family

faced some hard realities.

Everything happened too fast,

and we're all strangers

to each other.

It's hard to build a relationship

with someone that you

don't even know.

These stories aren't

always happy-ever-after.

They take time.

Now, for the first

time on television,

Carlina, her birth parents,

and the family that raised

her tell the true story

behind a reunion

that captivated the world.

In January 2011,

an assistant in a hair

salon near Atlanta

discovered she was

really Carlina White,

abducted as an infant

from Harlem Hospital

But though she had

found her true family,

in the months afterward,

she still had not

made her way home.

I still have that family

that don't really know me.

I was brought up differently,

and I'm an adult as well

so it's like,

it's gonna take

a little bit more time.

She have the family

that she was brought up with,

and she don't know me,

she don't know, you know,

her real mom.

This is not easy.

You don't just wipe out 23

years of history and...

and have everything revert

to where it was, uh,

on that day in 1987.

She was a sweet baby

in the time

that I had with her.

Joy White was 16

years old in 1987,

when she found out she

was pregnant

by her then-boyfriend,

We started talking about it.

She said she wanted

to keep the baby,

then that's when we

really had to sit down

and talk to our parents.

I had to explain

to my mother,

you know, what

was going on, and...

she was upset at first,

but she was very supportive

throughout the whole thing.

It was a long pregnancy,

running two weeks

past the due date.

By July 15th,

Joy had had enough.

I got tired of being pregnant,

so, uh,

what I did was I walked

all the way from 125th Street

and Broadway,

and I walked down

to 34th Street,

and then after that,

I went into labor,

and I had her.

She named the baby

Carlina Renae White.

The first name

was for Carl,

the second was

Joy's middle name.

That was a wonderful feeling.

Here was a little girl

I was going to raise,

that I was gonna be able

to take to the park.

Joy brought the baby home

to her mother's apartment

in Harlem.

We all used to just stand

and look at her.

You know how I'm talkin' about...

What a beautiful little girl.

Very pretty, always smiling,

but she had some lungs on her.

She used to cry, cry, cry...

cry a whole lot.

Joy was just learning

to take care of her baby

when Carlina spiked

a high fever, 104 degrees.

On the evening

of August 4th,

Joy and Carl rushed their

to the emergency room

at Harlem Hospital,

where she had been born.

The doctors found that Carlina

had swallowed some fluid

during the delivery,

and now she had

an infection.

I was upset because,

you know,

that was my baby

and she was sick.

And then when they told me

that they have to keep her,

you know, I was really,

you know, upset.

As Joy cried in the hallway

outside the pediatric ward,

a woman dressed in white

comforted her.

She came up to me...

she seen me crying,

and she came up to me and said,

"Don't cry...

here's a piece of tissue.

Don't worry... everything

is gonna be okay. "

And, um, she kinda made

me feel better, you know,

at that time, because

I was, like, so upset

I didn't know what to do.

Joy decided to head

home to clean up

and get a little rest.

I'm 16 years old...

I'm a young girl.

I didn't know any better

at the time.

I think the hospital is safe.

She fell asleep,

but not for long.

Someone knocked on the door,

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