Cheap genetic tests are changing the world. For people who were adopted, it’s making it possible to track down relatives.
Genevieve Purinton is a lonely old woman living in an assisted living facility in Florida.
She was 88 years old and had outlived all eight of her siblings. Over the years, they had all passed away. She was the only one left.
She had no children. Years ago, she had a hysterectomy due to a tumor, cutting off her ability to bear children.
She had given birth to only one child a long time ago in 1949 in Indiana, a little girl that lost her life in childbirth. Or so she was told. Things were different back then. Genevieve was just 18 and unwed when that baby came into this world. When she asked to see the child, she was told it had lost her life at birth.
“I asked to see the baby and they said she di*d, that’s all I remember,” said Purinton, now 88.
But it turned out that daughter, Connie Moultroup, 69, was adopted and lived most of her life not knowing her biological mother.
In 2017, a woman named Connie orders a DNA kit. It’s a Christmas gift for herself. She’s adopted and has no idea who her mother is. She’s an old woman, in her late sixties. She knows the odds are poor that her mother still lives, but she wants to find out what she can. She wants to know where she comes from.
Armed with the DNA results, she’s able to track down a cousin. She tells the cousin the name of her mother. Amazingly, her cousin says “Oh, that’s my aunt. And she’s still alive.”
It’s a shock, but in a good way.
Of course, Genevieve is Connie’s mother. Connie was able to find her address and travel to see her and tell her in person “I’m not dead” while they exchanged a tearful hug.
69 years after being told her baby girl had lost her life, her baby girl told her personally “I’m not de*d.”
Genevieve is no longer alone in this world.
She not only has an adult daughter, but she also has grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She suddenly has a big family again, after her family had dwindled down to nothing over the years. Or she thought it had.
Source:
apost.com,
