Maryanne Thumbwood always felt something was missing in her life.
She knew she was adopted and had this nagging feeling to search for her birth mom.
It wasn’t because her adoptive family did not love her, but because she longed to find a connection with her biological mother.
That curiosity and longing started her long journey to finding her birth mother.
Maryanne was born in 1962 in Canada by Geraldine Mayhew, who gave her away at birth.
Her adoptive family moved to Australia when she was only 12, and she never got to know or meet her birth mother.
Maryanne contacted and registered with Canada’s community services to start her search.
She knew they could help her find her mother somehow, so she left her address with them, hoping they could give it to her.
Three years later, they responded with a letter saying they had found Geraldine.
Geraldine’s first letter came soon after, and a heartfelt message of reassurance was in it.
She explained how giving Maryanne up at birth was not because she did not love her.
She signed some papers before giving birth opting for the baby to be adopted, and when she caught a glimpse of baby Maryanne, she changed her mind.
Sadly, the agency working on her papers said she could take it back once it was signed.
That letter somehow gave Maryanne hope that they would soon meet.
She kept all this a secret for the past eight years.
Nobody from her adoptive family nor any of her friends in Australia knew that she had reached out to her birth mother living on the other side of the world.
After some time, the letters stopped coming.
She found out that her mother was sick and could not write.
She received a letter a year later, but it was not from her mother; it was from the community services in Canada telling her the good and bad news.
The good news was her birth sisters registered in their services. The bad news was her mother had passed.
This broke Maryanne’s heart, thinking she couldn’t meet her mom again.
What’s worse was this news came two months after her stepmother died.
At that point, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to reach out to her birth sisters.
Ruth Mayhew and Christine Bissonnette were the sisters she never knew.
Both had different fathers. Ruth was also adopted out while their mother kept Christine.
The two were at their mother’s bedside during her last days, and Geraldine told her daughters about Maryanne, so they decided to reach out to her and fly to Australia to meet her.
After five decades, their reunion had finally come and Today Tonight was there to capture it all.
Maryanne waited anxiously in the airport’s arrival area, holding a stuffed kangaroo.
She kept checking the people coming out, filtering the faces passing by for those she knew.
Her two sisters emerged from the crowd, walking down the stairs a few moments later.
They recognized each other even when they were meters away, tears flowing from their eyes.
The sisters hugged each other and couldn’t contain their joy.
Finally, they reunited after 52 years of being apart.
It is half of their lives, but they promised to make the most out of their second half.
Watch their heartwarming reunion in the video below!
