A mother and daughter reunion 69-years in the making took place in Tampa this past week, all thanks to one of those home ancestry kits.
“I knew that I was adopted from the beginning,” Connie Moultrop said.
For decades, Moultrop had been searching for her birth mother. Her adopted parents both died when she was young.
Her step-Mom, she says, was abusive.
“She was very angry.”
A few years back Connie thought she’d found her mother. But it wasn’t her.
So, last year, she tried something new. One of those popular DNA ancestry kits. The result?
“I was floored,” she said. “Absolutely floored.”
It turns out Connie had two half-sisters on her father’s side. She also found a cousin who told her Connie’s mother was still alive and living at an apartment complex for seniors in Tampa.
At 88-years-old, Genevieve Purinton can still hardly believe it. She’d been told her daughter -- the only child she ever had -- died at childbirth.
“They just said she didn’t make it,” said Purinton.
But last week, after nearly seven decades, the Christmas wish Connie had made every year finally came true. She traveled to Tampa and met her mother.
“A family I didn’t think I had,” said Purinton.
“I just grabbed her, and hugged her, and started to cry,” Connie explained. “And she did too.”
Connie has since headed back home to Vermont. But she and her mother talk on the phone just about every other day and plan to see each other again in a few months.
Before taking the ancestry test, Connie says she was aware of only three blood relatives: her daughter and her two grandchildren. Now she’s learning about a family tree that includes more than a thousand relatives.
Purinton hopes to also meet her granddaughter and two great-grandchildren. Suddenly, an entire family -- thanks to that DNA kit.
“Thank gosh I’m alive to meet them,” she said.
Connie says she realizes not everyone who tries to find their family members is so lucky.
“Not everybody has had this fortune,” she said. “But, I’m grateful I did it. I’m very grateful I did it.”
It’s still not clear why Purinton, who was an unmarried teen at the time, was told Connie had died at childbirth. But the two have resolved not to dwell on what they’ve missed.
They are grateful, instead, for what they’ve now got.
“Just look forward,” said Purinton, calling it: “God’s plan.”
“I’ve got time now,” said Connie. “That’s why the rearview mirror is a lot smaller than the windshield. I want to go forward.”
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