back to newfoundland, canada.f shirley's three children who had recently been in a bad car accident. i was hurt in an accident. she was coming here to take care of me. right? it didn't clue me in at all that she was fleeing the u.s. >> reporter: t.j. says while he was touched she had shown up at the hospital he was also a little surprised. he says his mother was so often unavailable especially from the time she started medical school. he was in high school then. >> i would cook supper sometimes when she wasn't around. i kind of took care of myself at that point. >> reporter: ultimately she sent him away with no forewarning to live with his father in a tiny coastal village hundreds of miles away. >> i can remember being really upset and pissed off about that happening because i had friends here and i had no time to tell anybody basically -- i didn't even know why i was going other than mom didn't want us around. we in the way i guess of her trying to go to school. >> reporter: and, says t.j., in the way of her oppo