Birth Mother Meets Daughter for First Time in 60 Years in Emotional Video
— -- It was a reunion 60 years in the making.
"An answer to 60 years of prayers," Maureen Zachry-Winkler told ABC News.
The story began in Brooklyn, New York, when Zachry-Winkler was 17 years old and pregnant. The father of the baby was her long-time boyfriend. "He came to my 8th-grade graduation," she said. "We were madly in love."
They wanted to get married. Her parents would not have it.
She said she was "forced" to give her baby up for adoption. "They took her away from me and I never saw her again. I begged the social worker to find her good parents, someone to cherish her." The social worker said she would. "'Don't worry Maureen, I will find her good parents,'" she recalls the woman saying. But she never knew for sure. "She was in my heart every day."
Fast forward 60 years and Janet Delcambre, living in Titusville, Florida, has a conversation with a cousin with a particular interest in genealogy. The cousin asks if Janet would like to find her birth parents. When they found the woman they believed to be Delcambre's birth mother, Janet wrote her a letter.
"I wanted her to know I had a wonderful life," Delcambre said.
Prayers answered.
"I was home alone when I got the letter," Zachry-Winkler, now in her late 70s, told ABC News. "Thank goodness I was. I laid down on the floor and sobbed for four hours. All these years I prayed she was happy. Now I knew for sure."
Though she and Janet's father did marry and had more children, they kept their secret. When her first husband, Janet's father, died, Maureen remarried. She had never told her husband about Janet.
"He was on a trip and I called him. He was thrilled. I called a family meeting for that Sunday with all the kids."
LeeAnn McGill is Zachry-Winkler's daughter and Delcambre's sister. "We were in shock," she said of hearing the news. "My whole life I wanted a sister. I had one all along."
McGill said she and her brothers immediately went to Facebook. "We look like twins," she said.
Delcambre, who was raised as an only child, said finding out she had siblings was "a dream come true." Her adoptive mother had always told Janet that her biological mother loved her, did not want to give her away. "So I dreamed that maybe my parents had gotten married and had more children."
Delcambre mailed her letter on July 21. On July 26, she had a letter back. "I cried the ugly cry. I wasn't prepared for how emotional it was."
McGill shot the video of her mother and sister's first meeting, which took place at Delcambre's home in Florida. "I couldn't even breathe," McGill said.
She had brought Janet a gift. Janet said she had one for LeeAnn too. They couldn't believe it when they realized they had purchased for one another the same exact thing: an Aiden and Ani "Sister" bracelet.
The family has since had a second reunion this week, this time in New York where Delcambre met her other siblings, too. But that first embrace, caught on video, stands out as a surreal moment in all the women's lives. They said they hope that their story gives other people hope that even after 60 years, finding biological family is still possible for those who choose to search.
"I didn't know what to anticipate, but as soon as the door opened, it was perfect and right," Delcambre said.
Her birth mother agreed. "It's been a wonderful miracle," she said.
