When Juliet Simone turned 30 years old, she decided to try for a baby. She had no idea then just how much the birth of her first child would open up her family’s world.
After a number of miscarriages with former romantic partners, Simone, now 41, elected to pursue single motherhood and started the process of selecting a sperm donor. Her mother, 71-year-old Rebecca Massie, offered her support and made space for Simone to move back to her childhood home.
As Simone painstakingly tracked her cycle to make the most of the “bio material” sent by donors, life threw her another curveball — a friend introduced Simone to a man who eventually became the father of her children and her husband. The new couple started dating as Simone continued to undergo treatment, and eventually Simone became pregnant. Soon after the birth of her baby boy, more surprises were in store.
“He turned up positive for [a] genetic disorder…and it’s X chromosome linked,” Simone shared in her StoryCorps recording session. “Which means he got the disorder from me and [the doctors] wanted to test my family.” Through this, Massie was struggling to find a way to reveal a secret she’d kept throughout life, including through her daughter’s quest to get pregnant.
“I married a Scotsman in the '70s. I was 24 years old. He was quite older than me, and he told me he [had] had a vasectomy,” Massie explained. “That was fine with me. And around 28 [years old] it hit me upside the head — I had to have a baby.”
Massie and her late husband discussed numerous possibilities for parents. Eventually, they landed on giving the sperm bank a try. “In those days you could pick the eye color, hair color and height. And that was the end of that,” Massie said. “And within two months I was pregnant with Juliet.”
Once it became known that Simone and her brother have different biological fathers, Massie and her children have supported one other in their search to find their blood-related family members and “diblings” (siblings through donors).
“Mom! How could you watch me go through this process and keep this huge secret?” Simone asked during her StoryCorps interview with her mother.
Massie replied, “Well, I was extremely supportive…!”
For more on Juliet Simone and Rebecca Massie’s family story, including how Juliet met her husband and the father of her children and how their understanding of “family” has changed, listen to St. Louis on the Air on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or click the play button below.
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Ulaa Kuziez, Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. Roshae Hemmings is our production assistant. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.
