COLUMBUS, Ohio — Getting a job, finding a place to live or even just receiving medical care are all things that can sometimes be taken for granted, but accomplishing any of those feats becomes much harder if you don’t have a birth certificate.
What You Need To Know
- Sadie Nelson, 67, has been living without a birth certificate almost her entire life
- Nelson says the midwife that delivered in Mississippi died before recording her birth
- The Open Shelter finally helped Nelson obtain a birth certificate after all these years
Sadie Nelson knows that more than anyone.
The 67-year-old woman lived without a birth certificate for nearly her entire life.
"It doesn't seem fair,” Nelson said. “Anybody else got a birth certificate. Why can't I have one?"
She said the midwife who delivered her 67 years ago in Mississippi died before recording her birth
"The only recorded record of my birth was with the horses and cows and the animals on the plantation that we lived on," she said.
Instead of a birth certificate, Nelson would use census records and a letter from the judge when applying for jobs and housing, but after learning the building she lived in was being sold, and her rent would soon triple, she needed a new place to live.
"I found out that low-income apartments and stuff like that, they won't rent to you unless you have a birth certificate. And I really needed somewhere to go," Nelson said.
That's where The Open Shelter stepped in.
Assistant Director Sarah Hatchard helps people in need obtain their birth certificates, which can help them apply for social security, benefits and a driver's license, but Hatchard says Nelson's case was different.
"I hadn't had (one), where there was no record kept,” Hatchard said.
That made the task to get Nelson a birth certificate all the more difficult.
"She needed to provide two separate documents that were older than seven years that showed that she was her date of birth,” Hatchard said. “I think only one, maybe two documents that show she was born in Drew, Mississippi, and then one document that showed both birth parents' names and all of the documents have to be older than seven years old, and they have to be very, very specific type of documents."
After months of sending documents back and forth, Nelson's birth certificate finally came in in December, and Nelson already has big plans for this document that took 67 years to get.
"I want to frame it and put it on the wall,” Nelson said. “Don't tell me that I don't exist. Right there it says, ‘I do’. It feels good."