Adopted woman reunites biological parents after 50 years apart
A woman’s journey to uncover her past led
to a beautiful reunion for two lovers.
It’s funny how life works sometimes. For Laura Mabry of Springdale, Arkansas, life was good after she was adopted into a loving family – but her quest to uncover her past has rekindled love as her biological parents reunite after 50 years.
In 1968, Laura Mabry was adopted by the loving Wayne and Darline Montgomery. She lived a happy life and grew up in a happy and loving home. However, as she grew older, Laura wondered who her biological parents were and, at 52, she finally decided to track them down.
READ: South African Zirk Botha makes history by completing 7,200km row from Rio to Cape Town
In 2019, Laura took a DNA test and tracked down her biological mother, Donna Horn. "We started communicating by text and email," Mabry said. “She said, 'Are you interested in knowing who your father is?’ I was like 'Of course I am!'"
Donna explained to her biological daughter that her biological father goes by the name of Joe Cougill and that they were high school sweethearts growing up in Indiana. The couple fell pregnant at a young age and decided that adoption would be the best solution to giving their daughter a life she deserved.
As Laura continued on her quest to meet her birth parents, she tracked down Joe and put him in touch with Donna. "I gave him her phone number, and they started to talk immediately, and they just immediately bonded because, you know, he was divorced and her husband had passed away,” Laura explains. “So they were both single. And they immediately started talking, and I mean that was just that.”
The couple hit it off straight away and in May 2020, over 50 years since they last saw or spoke to each other, Joe and Donna decided to tie the knot. "This has fulfilled something in my life that even I didn’t realise I needed so much,” Laura says adding that their love story has made her into the woman she is today.
“I think that’s been a key part of just knowing my history, [their story] has been so important in my life,” she said. “That helped complete my whole identity, which has been great.”
Image courtesy: Laura Mabry