When Genevieve Purinton was 18 years old, she gave birth to a baby girl at a hospital in Gary, Indiana. She was unmarried and alone, and was naive to the process of entering motherhood. So, when she was informed by hospital staff that her infant had died after delivery, she didn't even ask for a death certificate. Devastated and lost, she blamed herself for her baby's passing, and never had any other children.

That was almost 70 years ago, in 1949.

Now, at the age of 88, Purinton has discovered that her baby didn't die. She had been adopted under the name of Connie Moultroup, and she'd spent almost her entire life wanting to know who her birth mother was. And, thanks to a DNA test for Ancestry.com, the two have finally been reunited.

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"I was absolutely floored," Moultroup told the New York Times after discovering that her mother was still alive. The pair arranged to meet, at which point the connection "was almost instantaneous."

"It was a bawlfest," Moultroup said. "She was so happy to meet me."

The mother and daughter apparently have many things in common, and clicked instantly.

Though it's a beautiful thing that they have finally been reunited, Moultroup and Purinton should never have been separated in the first place. The then-18-year-old mother had never knowingly consented to giving up her child, though adoption papers showed her signature. Clearly, she had been coerced into signing them without knowing what they were, and it is now known that a doctor organised for the adoption to take place.

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The tragedy faced by Purinton and her daughter is not an isolated incident, either. Before Roe v. Wade was passed in 1973, hundreds of thousands of young women were forced to give up their "illegitimate" for adoption - and, obviously, some were coerced into it without even knowing.

Because of that heartless action, Purinton spent the following 70 years believing she had no living children. In fact, she thought she was the last surviving member of her family, as her parents and all of her eight siblings have already passed away. However, when Moultroup managed to track Purinton down though a cousin, the octogenarian discovered that - not only does she have a daughter - she also has a granddaughter and two great grandchildren.

Moultroup was also misled by her adoptive family. They originally told her that she was the baby of "a friend of a friend", but later changed their story and said they had "walked up and down the aisles of the hospital until they found [Moultroup] and they just had to take [her] home."

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Purinton explained to her daughter that her biological father was married to another woman when she was conceived, and, because she was still at school when she gave birth, there was nobody there with her to question the decisions made by doctors. She was severely betrayed and deceived, but at least she has her daughter now.

Through the DNA test, Moultroup also discovered that she has two half-sisters. She plans on meeting them soon, and says she's very excited to do so.

There are some things in life that don't get neatly resolved. While the movies we watch often see their characters find closure and the plot tied up with a bow, real life rarely gives concrete answers to mysteries.

However, when it comes to those searching for their biological parents or investigating their family histories, there have been huge scientific advancements that can help their cause. Anthea Ring was abandoned as a child, and has spent the whole of her life wondering who exactly her parents were. Now, she has her answer.

Anthea was found crying on the South Downs in Sussex on August 26 1937. Abandoned in a bush, she was wearing a pink dress, her hands were tied, and she was covered in insect bites and scratches - all at the delicate age of nine months old.

She was swiftly taken to hospital, but a nationwide search for her parents came up empty. After six months she was adopted by another family, and wasn't told about the mystery until she was 24.

Anthea has reportedly spent the last 35 years looking for her birth parents, and due to advances in DNA testing, she was able to find out that she was of Irish descent back in 2016, with the help of family history detective and genetic genealogist Julia Bell. After all those years of searching, she has finally discovered the identity of her father - at the age of 81.

Six years ago DNA testing narrowed the search down to her father being one of six brothers from the Coyne family, who originated from County Galway in Ireland. The results couldn't tell them exactly which brother it was, but then there was a break in the case. Finding 30-year-old letters from one brother, Patrick, they managed to test the saliva on the stamps to confirm that he was indeed the father.

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"Stamps and other materials containing DNA such as hair from a brush, can often provide vital evidence in DNA testing," David Nicholson, Founder and Managing Director at Living DNA said, "and this has proved critical in Anthea's very personal, and long-running, case to learn her roots."

Unfortunately, seeing as Anthea is in her 80's, her biological father had died long before she had a chance to meet him. However, she has now had the opportunity to connect to her past and contact his wider family.

Anthea, now a grandmother living in Bradford-upon-Avon, explained:

"I'm delighted to have found the final piece in the puzzle of my family history. Who would have thought that stamps from decades old letters were the key to unlocking my story?

"I can now finally tell my children and grandchildren about their roots and where they came from.

"I feel like I have some closure. It's wonderful. Being able to track down my family has been incredible."

While this may not be the case for everyone hoping to discover their family histories, it's amazing that Anthea finally got some closure on this mystery, which unfolded over eight decades.

A Georgia mother has been reunited with her daughter - 42 years after she was taken from her at birth.

This summer, Nancy Womac greeted her long-lost child Melanie Spencer with a tearful embrace after four decades apart. And their reunion was all thanks to a 2018 DNA test on Ancestry.

In an interview with TODAY, Womac said that her daughter was "just what I thought she would be."

More on this incredible story in the video below:

Womac was just 16 when she fell pregnant. She was living in an orphanage at the time, but when the director found out about her baby they sent her to Bethesda Home for Girls in Mississippi - a strictly religious institution Womac described as "like a nightmare."

After six months at the Girls Home, Womac was flown to Tennessee to have her baby.

"I remember going into labor, and they just give me a shot and put me out," she said. "I don’t remember having her. I don’t remember them wheeling me into the delivery room. I don’t remember nothing. She was then gone by the time I woke up."

"She was my firstborn," she added. "It’s something that you never really get over."

Over the next 42 years, Womac would never forget her daughter. She was so haunted by the loss that she would bake a cake every year on her birthday, and never stopped wondering where she had been taken.

"I remember thinking, 'Well, she should be taking her first step now,' or, 'She should have lost her first tooth,' or, 'Her first day of school should have started,'" she said. "And every year on her birthday, I know it didn’t make any sense, but I always baked her a cake. She would be 12 today. She would be 13 today. She would be 14 today."

In fact, Womac's child was sent to South Africa, where she grew up as the adopted daughter of missionaries under the name Melanie Spencer.

Like Womac, she too had always been curious and held out hope of learning more about her biological mother. After moving to the U.S. for college, she decided to do some digging and see if she could find out the truth.

"I really started thinking about what will I tell them about where they’re from," Spencer said. "I decided to do Ancestry. The most interesting part was that it came up with a DNA match. It had been almost 40 years, and I thought, 'Why not?'"

The results led Spencer to Womac's sister, Cheryl Blackwell, who in turn put mother and daughter in contact. After a brief but exciting Facebook exchange, the two decided to meet face-to-face.

Spencer drove to Womac's Georgia home and spent several days meeting the rest of her family. Mother and daughter were overcome with emotion to be reunited over 42 years since they had been parted.

"I’m happy she will know that she was loved," said Womac.

"It feels like coming home," added Spencer.

Featured Image Credit: Cavan Images / Alamy

An 85-year-old woman was given the opportunity to gaze upon the coastline in Australia where she met her husband one last time before she passed away.

As reported by 7News, 85-year-old Mavis from Port Macquarie in Australia was transferred to palliative care from her home earlier this week.

During the journey in the ambulance, Mavis mentioned to paramedics Ray Smythe and Dave Moran about how she met her husband of 65 years at the beach.

The 85-year-old recounted to Smythe and Moran how she met her beloved Ron on Clovelly Beach and they soon hatched a plan to give her one last special memory.

Ray said via ABC.net.au: "She mentioned her and Ron had met on Clovelly Beach, and Dave piped up from the front seat and said do you want to go via the beach?"

He continued: "So we went off to Flynns Beach and Mavis was quite impressed ... she spotted a whale. She was becoming quite frail and couldn't get out of the stretcher but her mind was as sharp as a tack and she knew what she wanted."

The trio stayed at the beach for half an hour, and Mavis was able to feel the breeze on her face and get to experience the place which had given her the "happiest moment of her life" one more time.

"Her last journey was a lovely one. She could enjoy the whales breaching, the breeze, and the water," Dave said. "It was a lovely thing to do for someone's final journey."

Mavis had met her husband on Flynns Beach and managed to make it back for one more visit. Credit: Getty

The paramedics were saddened to hear that Mavis passed away shortly after this journey to the beach. "She knew she was towards the end of life, but I didn't expect her to pass away the next day," Ray said. "So that was a shock to us."

According to 7News, after being at the beach, Mavis grabbed Ray's hands and thanked him for what they had done for her.

This story has touched people across the world, as one person penned on Facebook: "Thank you and bless you both, Ray and Dave for being so compassionate and allowing Mavis [to] find her peace."

A second person wrote: "This is person-centered healthcare. Well done Ray and Dave for giving Mavis peace & joy on her final day."

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We applaud the actions of the paramedics to give Mavis one last trip to the beach while our thoughts are with Mavis's loved ones during this difficult time since her passing.

Featured image credit: farah elsageer / 500px / Getty

Mothers will do anything for their kids. As babies, kids and teenagers, a mother feels extra responsible to wipe noses, tie shoelaces and force-feed a vegetable or two every now and again. But after they finish school and start to show signs of "growing up", maternal duties seem to lessen. And that can be devastating for any mum to accept. Luckily, it wasn't quite so bad for Ada Keating, who at age 98 moved into the same aged care home as her 80-year-old son Tom to help look after him. Tom moved into aged care home Moss View near the UK's Liverpool last year after it was decided he needed a bit more care and support. Fast-foward a year later, his mum decided to move into the same facility so she could help care for him again too. Tom is Ada's eldest child, and staff say the two are "inseparable" and love spending time together. They hang out all the time, with their favourite activities including competitive board gaming and kicking back to watch long-running British soap opera series Emmerdale. The pair has always been close, as Tom never married and has always lived with Ada. "I say goodnight to Tom in his room every night and I'll go and say good morning to him," she told Liverpool Echo. "I'll tell him I'm coming down for breakfast." "When I go out to the hairdressers he'll look for me to see when I'm coming back. "When I get back he'll come to me with his arms outstretched and give me a big hug." "You never stop being a mum," she said, in classic motherly fashion. Ada and her late husband Harry had four kids together. Tom had three sisters: Barbara, Margi and Janet, who sadly only lived until she was 13. In any case, he seems to be thrilled to have his mother around in his new home, especially given the apparently excellent quality of care there. "They're very good here and I'm happy to see my mum more now she lives here," Tom said. "She's very good at looking after me. Sometimes she'll say 'Behave yourself'." Looks like she might still be trying to keep her only son in line, as in any mother-son relationship. Still, it's a very unique relationship for them to have remained so incredibly close their whole lives, and it seems to be inspiring the care home staff too. "It's very touching to see the close relationship both Tom and Ada share and we are so pleased we were able to accommodate both of their needs," said Philip Daniels, who is the manager of the care home. "It's very rare to see mothers and their children together in the same care home and we certainly want to make their time together as special as possible. "They are inseparable." Ada and Tom are regularly visited by other family members, including Ada’s granddaughter Debi Higham. Debi commented saying they're happy they're together again, saying: “There’s no parting them!" “It’s reassuring for us that they’re both getting looked after 24/7,” she added. Bless Ada for still prioritising the well-being of her son, especially at her ripe old age.