A woman in Ohio recently found out the woman with whom she worked at the same company for the last four years is her biological mother, ABC News reported.
La-Sonya Mitchell-Clark, of Youngstown, said she wanted to find out who her birth mother was ever since she learned she was adopted. That wish was finally fulfilled last month when the Ohio Department of Health released birth records for those born between 1964 and 1996. Mitchell-Clark is 38.
Mitchell-Clark's birth records, which came in the mail last Monday, revealed that Francine Simmons was her mother's name, ABC News reported.
With some extra research on Facebook, she discovered Simmons worked at the teleservices company InfoCision in nearby Boardman, where Mitchell-Clark has worked for the last four years.
The connection dawned on Mitchell-Clark.
"There's a Francine that works at my job. She works in VR and she works at the front desk," she told WYTV, referring to InfoCision's volunteer recruitment program.
Mitchell-Clark reached out to friends on social media and a day later, she received a phone call that would change her life.
"She called me and I said, 'Is this Ms. Francine,' She said, 'yes.' I said, 'I think I'm your daughter,' " Mitchell-Clark told the station.
Mother and daughter also learned they live within six minutes of each other in Youngstown. Simmons said she always wanted to reach out to her daughter but did not know how.
"I'm still in shock. It's amazing," Simmons, who worked at InfoCision for 10 years, told WYTV.
"I got pregnant when I was 14. I had her when I was 15. I was put in a home, a girl's home," Simmons continued. "Had her, got to hold her. Didn't get to name her, but I named her myself in my heart all these years."
Mitchell-Clark, who also discovered she has three sisters, one of whom also works at her place of employment, said her adoptive parents have always been supportive of her efforts to find her birth family.
"They're going to be a part of this, too," Mitchell-Clark said.
