Ohio Woman Learns Co-Worker Is Biological Mom

For years, 38-year-old La-Sonya Mitchell-Clark of Youngstown, Ohio longed to meet her biological mother after learning of her adoption, according to ABC’s Good Morning America.

So when the Ohio Department of Health released birth records last month for infants born between Jan. 1, 1964 and Sept. 18, 1996, she began her search in a heartrending story of miracles and chance. FromGMA:

She received her birth record in the mail Monday from the Department of Health in Columbus. That included her mother’s name, Francine Simmons. She searched for the name on Facebook and found out they worked at the same company, InfoCision, a privately held teleservices firm in Boardman, just south of Youngstown.

“There’s a Francine that works at my job. She works in VR and she works at the front desk,” Mitchell-Clark told WYTV, referring to volunteer recruitment, a nonprofit fundraising program that asks supporters to recruit friends and family.

Mitchell-Clark contacted friends through social media and, then, a day later, she received a call from her birth mother. Mitchell-Clark has worked for InfoCision for four years, while her mother has been there for 10 years, according to a company spokeswoman.

“She called me and I said, ‘Is this Ms. Francine?’ She said, ‘Yes.’ I said, ‘I think I’m your daughter,’” Mitchell-Clark told WYTV, adding that there were tears of joy. Simmons told the television station that she got pregnant at 14 and was placed in a girl’s home until she gave birth at 15. When the baby girl was born, she was put up for adoption.

Simmons was unable to name La-Sonya herself, but she named her daughter in her heart, she said in the interview.

Mitchell-Clark learned she has three sisters, one of whom she works with.