YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — An Ohio woman searching for her biological mom got the surprise of her life Monday when she learned her mother was a coworker.
WKBN reports the Ohio Dept of Healthreleased birth records last month for those born between Jan. 1 1964 and Sept. 18, 1996. La-Sonya Mitchell Clark, 38, got her records, including her mother’s name, in the mail on Monday.
La-Sonya looked up her mother’s name, Francine Simmons, on Facebook where she learned the two women work at the same company.
“There’s a Francine that works at my job. She works in VR and she works at the front desk,” she told WKBN.
She reached out to her friends on social media. A day later, she got a phone call.
“She called me and I said, ‘Is this Ms. Francine?’ She said, yes. I said, ‘I think I’m your daughter’,” La-Sonya said.
“I’m still in shock. It’s amazing,” Francine said.
She said she always wanted to reconnect with her daughter, but never knew how.
“I got pregnant when I was 14. I had her when I was 15. I was put in a home, a girl’s home. Had her. Got to hold her. Didn’t get to name her, but I named her myself in my heart all these years,” Francine said.
La-Sonya also learned she has three other sisters she didn’t even know about. One works with her as well.
Mom and daughter live just 6 minutes from each other in Youngstown.
