Woman Finally Finds Birth Mom in Unlikely Place: At Work
The reunited mother, daughter speak. (Image via WYTV)
When Ohio’s health department released birth records last month for those adopted over a period of more than three decades, a spokesman called it a chance for people to “possibly reconnect with some siblings or their birth parents,” WYTV reported at the time. For one Youngstown woman, both her birth mom and sister were much closer than anyone could have guessed. La-Sonya Mitchell-Clark, 38, had been working with her mother for four years before the two found out about it, ABC News reports. Her sister—one of three Mitchell-Clark learned she has—works at the same company, InfoCision. The path to discovery began on Monday, when Mitchell-Clark’s birth record arrived in the mail. She learned that her mother’s name was Francine Simmons, and she looked up Simmons’ Facebook profile, which revealed her place of employment.
“There’s a Francine that works at my job. She works in (volunteer recruitment) and she works at the front desk,” she tells WYTV. It was the same Francine, and the two shared a tearful phone call soon afterward.
“They would come in contact around the building and during events such as our corporate summer cookouts,” says a rep for the company, which has put out an exclamation point-filled press release about the news. Simmons had always wanted to meet her daughter, who she gave up at age 15.
“Had her. Got to hold her. Didn’t get to name her, but I named her myself in my heart all these years,” Simmons tells ABC News. The two women live only six minutes apart. (Another incredible reunion saw a mother reconnect with the daughter she heard had died 50 years ago.)
By Matt Cantor
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This article originally appeared on Newser: Woman on Hunt for Birth Mom Finds Her at Work
