After 52 years of wondering what had happened to her oldest daughter, Donna Pavey’s questions were finally put to rest.
Paved admitted, “I knew I would see her in heaven, but I never dreamed this day would come.”
Sharon Glidden made the six-hour drive from Oklahoma to her birth mother’s home in Texas only two days after she learned that she’d been adopted. Meanwhile, Pavey paced the floors, waiting for her arrival.
As soon as Glidden stepped out of the white truck, mother and daughter ran to embrace each other. Glidden’s younger sisters, Donna Shaw and Deanna Bordelon, had also been anticipating the reunion and watched happily from the sidelines.
Bordelon said, “I always wondered where she was–what she could be doing.”
Shaw told ABC News that they could always tell that Glidden’s absence had impacted their mother. “It was like this indescribable sadness that was always there. When Sharon came into this picture, it was like this instant healing.”
Pavey said that she placed her daughter for adoption because of pressure from her parents, who believed that she was too young to raise a child.
Pavey and her daughters tried for many years to contact their missing family member, but were unsuccessful for a long time. It wasn’t until Gladden herself started searching that any progress was made.
With the death of her parents, Glidden became interested in her family roots. She had a DNA test done by Ancestry.com which, to her surprise, matched her with a biological mother and sister.
Glidden called her aunt for a confirmation. “I didn’t even get half the sentence out and she said, ‘Yes honey, you were adopted,’” Glidden said.
When comparing photos Glidden and Pavey, it’s easy to see the family resemblance.
“I never want to let her go,” Glidden said.
You can read more of their amazing story here.
