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.
"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.
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."
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.
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