A Mom Reunited With Her Lost Daughter After Decades Apart, But Then They Both Learned The Truth

Nancy hadn’t had an easy life. She’d spent much of her younger years at a children’s shelter. But when she was 16, there was a very welcome distraction: a boy who was also staying at the shelter. It was the start of a story that would lead Nancy through a whole lot of heartache.

After the pair got together, Nancy eventually discovered that she was expecting a baby. Then news of the pregnancy soon reached the guy who was running the shelter. He had some tough words for Nancy — another big blow for a girl who hadn’t had much luck in her life.

“[The man] said, ‘This is what’s going to happen. You’re not shaming the children’s home, and we’re going to take care of this,’” Nancy explained to NBC News in 2021. So, she was taken to the Bethesda Home for Girls near Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Nancy was three months into her pregnancy at the time.

“It was a long dirt road from the main road down to Bethesda,” Nancy added. “At the time, I thought it was the longest dirt road in the world. And then it opens up to this long, white building. It was like a nightmare.” Sadly, “nightmare” was the exact right word to describe her experience.

Nancy had a hard time at Bethesda. Like a lot of the other young girls there, she wasn’t treated the way she deserved. Then she was moved again to East Ridge, Tennessee, as it was decided that Nancy would give birth far from home. If that wasn’t difficult enough, there would be another heartbreaking twist to come.

“[The medics] just gave me a shot and put me out,” Nancy later told NBC News. “I don’t remember having [my daughter]. I don’t remember them wheeling me into the delivery room. I don’t remember nothing.” And once she opened her eyes, the baby had already been sent away.

That girl would grow up to become Melanie Spencer. She was taken in by a loving couple, and she would soon be many thousands of miles from her birth mom. Her adoptive father worked as a missionary, meaning she spent much of her childhood in South Africa.

Now, Melanie was made aware from a pretty early age that she had been adopted. And, naturally, she was curious about her birth parents. That yearning to know where she was from only grew stronger after she packed her bags for America.

Melanie was heading back to the U.S. for college. Then, once she had settled down and given birth to two children of her own, she knew she had to see her birth mom. But where should she begin her search?

“I really started thinking, ‘What will I tell [my kids] about where they’re from when they’re older?’” Melanie said to NBC News. So the mom turned to the genealogy website Ancestry. “The most interesting part was that it came up with a DNA match. I was like, ‘Whoa! What do I do with this?’ I just decided to go for it,” she added.

After the match popped up, Melanie sent a message to a woman named Cheryl Blackwell. She’s a sister of Nancy’s. Melanie’s words remained unread for an agonizing year, as Cheryl simply didn’t visit the website that often. When she did finally spot the message, though, the door was opened to the most emotional of reunions.

Melanie and Nancy got in touch on social media before exchanging some poignant texts. “I’ve wondered about you for a long time,” Melanie wrote to her birth mom. “It’s a little overwhelming.” Nancy responded, “There’s not a day goes by that I haven’t thought of you. I want you to know that you’re loved so much.”

And Nancy hadn’t been exaggerating! She’d even made a birthday cake for Melanie each year. Then, in August 2021, that emotional pain finally started to subside. A face-to-face meeting had been arranged at Nancy’s house in Georgia.

Ahead of the reunion, Nancy told NBC News, “Sometimes I wake up and think, ‘Oh God, I’m just dreaming.’ Because I used to dream about meeting [Melanie]. So, yes, this is like a dream to me.” There was no need to worry, though — this was as real as it gets! And that dawned on Nancy when Melanie’s car pulled up to the house.

The long-separated pair shared the most tender of hugs on Nancy’s porch. Just like that, 42 years of anguish gave way to feelings of relief and happiness. Nancy had finally found her daughter! And Melanie offered her thoughts about this monumental moment to NBC News.

Melanie said, “[On] the drive down [from Maryland], I was kind of anxious. Then I got out of the car, and there she was. Forty-two years of questions. It almost feels like there wasn’t any missing time. It feels like coming home.” 

Nancy beamed, “[Melanie] wanted to know about her siblings, [as] she’d always wanted brothers and sisters. She has a houseful now! She’s just what I thought she would be. She’s beautiful [and] smart.” And the pair were practically attached at the hip for the next few days in Georgia.

Melanie got to know her birth family better and shared photos from her own childhood. She posed for a few snaps along the way, too, creating new memories for the years ahead. But the reunion did open up some old wounds that were hard to heal.

“These girls on Bethesda [support] groups, they talk about forgiveness and healing,” Nancy told NBC News. “And they say, ‘Let it go.’ I can’t let it go. Yes, [Melanie] is in my life, but [there are] so many things I’ve missed.” The Bethesda Home for Girls ended up being shut down after allegations of abuse from former residents.

But despite her difficult past, Nancy held on to something rare: hope. “Maybe after this, it won’t be so bad,” she said. And fingers crossed that’s the case. It’s hard not to root for Kathleen Fraser-Jackson, too.

Kathleen had built a successful life for herself. On the surface, she always looked cheery. The London-based community worker, however, had memories of a dark childhood lurking behind her smile.

Kathleen's mother died when she was only three years old, leaving her alone with her dad. But as if that change wasn't jarring enough for a toddler, her life was rocked again as a teenager.

When Kathleen was 14, she found some paperwork that her parents never intended her to see. Their contents changed everything she knew about her life up to this point, including her own identity.

Kathleen, the documents explained, was adopted as a little girl. The mother who had died a decade ago was a foster mom! Her birth parents, at least in theory, were out there somewhere.

Despite the revelation, Kathleen's life continued more or less unchanged until she was 22. Then tragedy struck again. James, her foster father died, leaving her alone.

From then on, the trail went cold. Kathleen's foster parents were both gone and she had to take care of herself; working was more important than chasing her genealogy. But after several decades, her situation changed.

She started working with Lisa Joyner and Chris Jacobs, hosts of TLC's Long Lost Family. Kathleen submitted a DNA sample, and show producers sent it away to analysts — who made a shocking discovery about her ancestry.

After years of living without an immediate family, DNA evidence revealed Kathleen's mother had a second daughter with another man! But that wasn't the only surprise they had in store...

Incredibly, the show was able to find her half-sister, a woman named Jean Thomson who lived in Edinburgh. Producers helped the two finally meet, and it was a dream come true for the pair.

"I’ve always wanted a big sister and Jean ­always wanted a little sister, and now we have that," Kathleen said. "We are like two peas in a pod.” But how could these strangers relate to each other within moments of meeting?

The two sisters actually had more in common than they could have imagined. Jean's adoptive family also broke down when she was a child; both sisters worked helping under-served communities. And they both shared one major question.

Ever since finding out that they were adopted, both Kathleen and Jean had wanted to meet their birth mother and get answers, like why she put them up for adoption. Long Lost Family was about to give them their chance.

Show producers brought Kathleen and Jean into a room. An older woman entered: their mother, Kathleen Hargreaves. She explained that, years before, she became pregnant by two different men on two separate occasions, and worried her kids would face a bleak future.

The elder Kathleen was afraid that her daughters would be swept away by England's wave of racial tensions. The two girls were mixed-race children born out of wedlock. She believed stable foster families could give the girls better lives than a single white mother could provide.

Kathleen and Jean's mother then moved to Canada, settling in Kitchener, Ontario. She got married there and had two children, meaning Kathleen had even more half-siblings! But it was going to be hard, she knew, to connect with people a continent away.

Well, despite the years of separation, the family came together quickly, thanks to a WhatsApp group. The daughters even planned to visit North America and spend time with their mom ASAP. But first she made a discovery closer to home.

DNA tests also discovered that Kathleen's birth father had a son named Teddy with a different woman. She simply couldn't believe it. Not only did she have yet another sibling, but he was living nearby the entire time! Of course, she quickly raced out to meet him.

Teddy lived in Shepherd’s Bush, not far from Kathleen's Wembley home. She even used to frequent her brother's neighborhood to get her hair braided and visit the market. The siblings could have seen each other hundreds of times and never realized it.

Teddy also provided a connection to Kathleen's birth father, a Jamaican man named Byron Burton. He introduced his sister to that side of her heritage, giving her even more family members to call her own.

After connecting with all of the disparate branches of her family tree, Kathleen planned to throw a massive party in Jamaica to celebrate with everyone. She had one final problem, however.

She couldn't find a house big enough to accommodate everyone! After years of living without a family, Kathleen's family has become so big she can't even fit them all in one place. Not a bad problem to have!