Myrtle Beach man searches for mother he never knew

Lucas Mullen was born in Conway Hospital on Saturday, Oct. 22, 1966. Although he can’t remember it, the following Monday was the last time he saw the woman who gave him life.

It was also the last time he saw anyone who looked like him, until years later when he saw his children.

Like many adoptees, Mullen, of Myrtle Beach, is searching for his birth parents. He wonders if the young woman who held him in her arms for a short time might now be alone and need him, and that is what inspired him to begin his search.

“I would not want her to be alone in her later years,” he said.

Making your life public is a very emotional thing, he said, but he has done it, and he is hoping he hasn’t waited too long.

“I’m 48, and I’m sorry and regretful that I didn’t start this before I did,” he said.

Mullen has had a good life with a wonderful family. He thinks that is what his birth mother wished for him, and he wants her to know her wish came true.

He doesn’t know if she lived in Horry County but thinks she was not from too far away — possibly North Carolina or Georgia. His adoptive parents had little information, but he knows that the attending physician was Dr. H.C. Brooks. The attorney who handled his adoption was Franklin G. Burroughs, and attorney Phillip Sasser was his guardian ad litem. Brooks, Burroughs and Sasser are deceased.

Mullen was told that his birth mother was a pianist or organist at a church somewhere, and that his birth father, possibly a descendant of a North Carolina governor, was married and living in the same community that she lived in.

“She didn’t want me growing up in the same community and not having him as my dad,” he said.

Mullen found a woman who worked for Burroughs, and she was the person who picked him up at the hospital. She remembered him, but she couldn’t help him with his birth parents’ identities except to say that his birth mother was young, thin and possibly had dark hair.

Two days after he was born, he began his life as a son of the Rev. Emmett Mullen, who died in 1987, and his wife, Barbara. The Rev. Mullen was at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Conway at that time.

Barbara Mullen said Lucas was a beautiful and delightful child. She and her husband later adopted another son and then had a biological one. She said she has always wanted to thank the birth mothers for allowing her to have those children. The fact that they were adopted was never kept secret, and she is hoping Lucas finds his birth parents.

“I want him to fill that empty space inside his soul,” she said. “I have always wondered what it would feel like not to know where you came from — there’s got to be an empty space.

“I don’t feel threatened at all,” she said.

She said she thinks that closed adoptions are unfair to children. Not only do they need to know who they came from, they need to know the medical histories of their birth families and so do their children.

“I think it’s unfair to my grandchildren for them not to know,” she said.

Lucas Mullen has been married to Jennifer Mullen for 15 years, and they have two children, Hannah and Patrick. As the son of a pastor, Mullen grew up in several different places. He graduated from the University of South Carolina and taught chemistry and biology for 20 years with Horry County Schools before starting his business, Coastal Vacation Rentals.

Adoption laws in South Carolina and closed records make it hard for adoptees to find their birth parents or for the parents to find their children. Numerous groups now work through the Internet to try to make those connections, and many connections are being made. Lucas and Jennifer are working with several sites, including ancestry.com, where his DNA has linked him to several distant cousins in Horry County.

They also are getting help from people in the county who have heard his story on television, seen him on Facebook and other Internet sites or just heard about his search.

He is optimistic about finding his birth mother alive.

“I can’t stop pursuing this if there is a possibility,” he said.

Mullen said he would never disrupt anyone’s life, but he would be happy to welcome his birth mother into his family and give her the opportunity to enjoy her grandchildren. He believes that she gave him up for his own good, and, on this Mother’s Day, he is hoping she is happy, and that she has peace in her heart about doing that.

This story was originally published May 10, 2015 at 2:00 AM with the headline "Myrtle Beach man searches for mother he never knew."