A social worker in London who helps an older Jeanette to find her birth mother. Ria assures Jeanette that, having counseled “many mothers over the years” as they make the difficult choice to give their babies up for adoption, she knows that “they never want to do it.” She implores Jeanette to understand that she was always wanted by her birth mother. As the process becomes more and more difficult and shrouded in policy, protocol, and red tape, Ria stays by Jeanette’s side and helps her to uncover crucial documents relating to her adoption.
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Ria Hayward Character Timeline in Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
The timeline below shows where the character Ria Hayward appears in Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 13: This Appointment Takes Place In The Past
...must meet with a social worker at the Home Office. She and Susie meet with Ria Hayward, who looks through the documents that Jeanette has, and reassures her that her mother...
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Ria helps Jeanette to put forward another request for information in to the court that might...
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Ria, Jeanette, and Susie continue to struggle against the courts, who demand that Jeanette follow strict...
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...she must do the “love-work” of allowing herself to stay with Susie. This conversation echoes Ria’s entreaty of Jeanette to believe that she was always “wanted.”
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Jeanette meets with Ria in Liverpool. Ria divulges details about her birth father, and also reveals Jeanette’s mother’s date...
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