who were her parents? what was her true identity? and at the very least, where could she find the documents that could give her a real life? she took a roundabout route. she asked the question indirectly. i took driver s ed, like any 16-year-old wants to get their i want to be free. i want to go work and be free from all of this. i have a plan. and i asked her for i need my birth certificate. i need this. she told me, they changed the laws. you can t get your driver s license until you re 18 years old. yeah. and i m supposed to believe this. as i sit in a classroom where i ve got friends who are getting permits. she took the lies with her. she was not going to tell. what about the birth certificate? never gave me a concrete answer, nothing. couldn t get anything out of her. the lies stayed with her. shirley knew the answers, of course. knew the whole bizarre story, but she looked pepper in the eye through her obvious pain and
told her nothing. she left the lies behind and took the truth to her grave. on july 29th, 1986, at the age of 63. she was buried here, this cemetery, in an unmarked grave. renee, now 19, got on with life, moved in with her boyfriend. soon pepper showed up at their apartment, homeless and nowhere else to turn to. and everywhere pepper went from then on, shirley s poison gift followed. because of that woman and what she did, pepper was officially, at least, a nonperson. so it took a little while for determination to come back. she was in her mid-20s, a single mother by then. if only she could find her birth certificate. that could lead her to her parents. anyway, she needed documents to live. she needed a passport. so she contacted state offices. their departments of vital records with perhaps predictable results. tell me what it feels like when
that she was sick? she turned completely yellow when they diagnosed her with pancreatic cancer and she literally died quickly after that. with shirley on her death bed, pepper tried to act like the dutiful daughter, went to see her regularly, tried to make her comfortable. but there was another terribly important reason to see her then. maybe the most important. one last opportunity to find out who she was. as she was dying, did you try to find, do you know, maybe she d make a deathbed confession and say, i did take you and here are what your parents names are and how to find them. any of that happen? did you ask? oh, yeah. and shirley had a response for the girl she renamed pepper. the question was, what could see do with that answer? coming up if jaycee duggard could be found after 18 years, certainly there must be hope for pepper. it triggered a lot of my own personal memories, you know, and
on july 29th, 1986, at the age of 63. she was buried here, this cemetery, in an unmarked grave. renee, now 19, got on with life, moved in with her boyfriend. soon pepper showed up at their apartment, homeless and nowhere else to turn to. and everywhere pepper went from then on, shirley s poison gift followed. because of that woman and what she did, pepper was officially, at least, a nonperson. so it took a little while for determination to come back. she was in her mid-20s, a single mother by then. if only she could find her birth certificate. that could lead her to her parents. anyway, she needed documents to live. she needed a passport. so she contacted state offices. their departments of vital records with perhaps predictable results. tell me what it feels like when you know you have to go to an
so there it is. you have your mother, but what now? are you will you have a relationship with her? well, we re going to move her yes, yes, once she gets all her affairs in order. we re going to move her in. why? because i want her. my husband wants her, too, there, so. i want to have a relationship with my mom. like i was telling you earlier, i want to go shopping. i want to have lunch. i want to go buy stuff. i want to have christmas, thanksgiving, her there with me. and pepper? well, for one thing, pepper has adopted her real birth name, the one that her parents gave her before it was lost in the abductions and the adoptions. it s ronique. ronique smith. i have been very content of