This letter is included with respect for the family of  Helen Tanos Hope. It is unedited and printed exactly as Helena wrote it.

My name is Helena. I am Helen Tanos-Hope’s youngest daughter and I too, am 
adopted.

It is very important to me and my children, that you all know that my mother was never involved in Black Market adoptions. She was never a baby peddler. 
She was an intelligent and very prominent Attorney. She loved her children and brought us up in a wonderful home. I loved my mother and I miss her very much.

Of course, you will believe what you wish; all I ask is that for the sake of  my two children- her grandchildren, that you take care in what you say.  Things like this can damage a child and hurt them very badly (we are ALL 
innocent until proven guilty!). There is absolutely NO evidence that my mother was nothing but professional. There is NO criminal history, NO ill favored news reports, NO investigations by law enforcement or the Florida Bar...nothing but a bunch of people talking. People who want answers NOW and blame others because they are impatient for their answers. PLEASE, you would not want your mother to be treated in this way. PLEASE let God rest her 
soul.

I have no knowledge of an Estelle Barkan. I am sure that if this woman was a friend of my mothers, that somewhere along the line I would have heard her name. I never heard my mother say anything about Mexican adoptions. All my 
mother would tell me is that she was helping families that couldn’t otherwise have children or birth mothers that, for some reason or another, could not keep their babies or provide for them. She never made either the adoptive family or the birth family sound any less worthy of help. A letter  telling all about the birth family was available to the adoptive parents. Some would accept the letters and others would not. So, if you want to blame someone for your not being able to find your answers, blame the adoptive parents or how about blaming the lack of efficiency in the OLD system! Why not blame it on the secretaries who made typos on their typewriters, the file clerks, the postal service and all the paper handlers in between?

We could blame all day long and it won’t get us anywhere. Now, I would like to make a suggestion- why don’t we all stick together, stop blaming and start helping each other find what we need?  We are ALL in this together. Gossip destroys people! Get some evidence and then place blame but, find it somewhere in your heart to think about the families of the people you are blaming publicly. My mother is not here to defend herself  but, her children and grandchildren are here to listen to and see all the bad things you are saying and writing about her. Is this how you would want your family treated?

Helena