Some Things You Just Can’t Change

A little government aid was all Sally thought she needed to change her life for the better. Her DNA and the state, however, had other ideas.

Sally was three-months pregnant with her third child when she and Ray, her longtime partner and the father of eight-year-old Sam, six-year-old Erin, and this new arrival, went their separate ways—him to rehab for the third time and she to an even smaller apartment in Atlanta’s Vine City neighborhood. She was working but not enough to cover all the bills, so she reasoned it was time to finally seek help from the state, something she had resisted in the past but now thought it was the key to a fresh start—a whole new Sally.

To receive that help, though, she and Ray had to undergo paternity and maternity tests, the results of which turned Sally’s redo into an undoing.

"Who are you?" the social worker said when Sally arrived for her case review.

“Sally James,” she replied, confused by the question. They knew who she was.

"Whose children are Erin and Sam? Are they your sister's? Your brother's? Did you abduct them?”

“No,” Sally replied, now horrified by the questions. “They are mine. Mine and Ray’s.”

“No, they aren’t,” the social worker retorted. “Nothing in their genetics matches yours so they can’t possibly be your biological offspring.”

“But. But. But...” Sally stammered. “That isn’t true. There must be some mistake.”

“DNA doesn’t lie,” the social worker replied, “but it’s proving that you are a liar. And lying comes with consequences.”

Thus began a new life for Sally, just not the one she’d hoped to start.

The state filed charges against her for welfare fraud and announced they suspected her of acting as a paid surrogate mother. And if that weren’t bad enough, they began threatening to take Erin and Sam away.

Despite the fact that Sally had family photos of her children from birth to current day and that Ray swore he was present at their births, the state would not budge. Who’s going to trust an addict and a potential welfare queen?

At the insistence of her court-appointed lawyer, another DNA test was done but it, too, showed no genetic link between Sally and her children. The state became adamant and relentless in their claims that she was a charlatan, and Sally woke up every morning wondering if she would have a new life—one behind bars and without her children.

The legal wrangling continued long enough for Sally to give birth to baby Annie, who was immediately tested. Her DNA, like Sam’s and Erin’s, did not match Sally’s. A cervical swab taken by Sally’s OB, however, provided a chance for further testing.

The result: Sally was not a fraud, she was a chimera — one of only one-hundred people documented to possess two sets of DNA, each with the genetic code to make a separate person.

There was a not to be a new Sally, there were two Sallies.

— Katjack