Heartwarming Story: A daughter finally finds her long lost mother through technology
Sometimes in life, you can’t help but accept fate. This is what happened to a young woman named Lena Pierce when she gave birth to a baby named Eva May when she was just 13 years old. Because of state law, she had to give her baby up for adoption in 1933.
Eva May was then adopted by a family in Long Island and grew up as Betty Morrell. She had cousins and relatives and lived a happy and fulfilling life, until a neighborhood child told her that she was adopted. At that point, Morrell started asking questions and it wasn’t until in 1966 when she found out that her mother was still alive. Her adoptive mother had told her that her biological mother died giving birth.
Morrell found out that she was born in Utica so she started writing to all of the hospitals in the area. She heard back from a hospital that said they had two records of births on February 11, 1933, one boy and one girl named Eva May. With the newfound information, she tracked down the adoption agency but she kept hitting a series of brick walls because her adoption was a closed one.
But for the next 20 years, Morrell didn’t stop searching. With the help of one of her grandchildren, she made a discovery through ancestry.com that put her in touch with Millie Hawk, one of Lena Pierce’s daughters. At 82 years old, Betty was surprised to find out that her biological mother was still alive, and was also actively searching for her.
“I’ve got a mother! And I’ve got a sister!” Morrell said. Morrell then learned later on that she actually has four sisters and two brothers.
During the day of Morrell’s discovery, Pierce was about to go and play bingo at the local fire station next to her apartment in Pennsylvania when Hawk informed her mother that they had found Eva May. Pierce broke down and started crying.
“She was crying so much she couldn’t even go to play bingo,” Hawk said.
Strangely enough bingo seems to have brought many families together of the years. There was another extraordinary story about how two, long-lost sisters found each other through technology but it wasn’t through Ancestry.com; it was via a bingo news site where both had been online friends for 9-years but were unaware that they were actually related until they hit the jackpot. The two stories are very similar and just goes to show that technology does yield great things, or moments, to people especially those looking for lost family members.
Regarding the Morrell-Pierce story, the reunion between them was nothing short of emotional. When both met at the airport, Morrell and Pierce couldn’t stop crying.
“It’s an experience that not many get at my age or my mother’s age,” Morell said. “It’s the best thing that’s happened to me.”
Truly, a bond between a mother and her child is so strong that not even time or anonymity can stop them from meeting. Do you have a reunion story similar to this heartwarming one? Share it with us in the comments section!
-by Jamie Barnett
