A Missouri woman had an emotional reunion with her daughter on Thursday nearly 50 years after the woman was told her daughter died at birth, KTVI reported.
Zella Jackson Price, 76, embraced her now 49-year-old daughter Melanie Diane Gilmore for the first time outside her home in Olivette, Miss.
"There is nothing greater. There's nothing greater than this. Nothing," Price told KTVI.
Not only did Gilmore, who flew in from Oregon, meet her mother for the first time, she also met her six adult brothers and sisters. Price also got to meet her grandson and granddaughter.
"I am just so happy...very excited," said Gilmore, who is hearing impaired due to a childhood illness.
But underneath the joyous reunion is the somber question of why Price was told her premature infant died hours after giving birth at the now shuttered Homer G. Phillips Hospital in 1965.
Price said after she gave birth, a nurse came and told her the disturbing news.
"She came up to me three hours later and said your baby passed," Price told KSDK.
Gilmore was adopted by another family. Last year, her children began looking for their biological grandmother and eventually found her through Facebook. DNA testing confirmed Gilmore was Price's daughter, the station reported.
Once the euphoria settles, the family plans on hiring a lawyer to find out if Price's infant was somehow kidnapped.
"I'm still kinda in shock," Price told KSDK. "I don't know what we'll find out, what error, what was done, I don't know what we'll find out.
"As soon as we get over the excitement of being together, and everything, I will seek a lawyer," she said.
According to KSDK, after the story broke another woman called saying her mother also gave birth at the same hospital in 1953 and was told by a nurse the baby died. The station is looking into her claims.
The St. Louis hospital in question closed down in 1979 and was converted into apartments for seniors.
