Sexual abuse is a terrible thing. According to The National Center for Victims of Crime, every 1 in 5 girls (and 1 in 20 boys) is a victim of reported sexual abuse.
Rochetta Cheek was one of these girls, giving birth to her abuser’s baby at only 13 years old.
The man who had abused her took the baby immediately after it was born.
Rochetta never knew what happened to the child after that, but she said:
“I never stopped thinking about her. I never took the image of her out of my mind.”
On the day of the baby’s birth, Tonie McNair had left her apartment at 6 am, en route to an early morning shift at work.
On her way out of the building, she noticed a bundle of sheets underneath the stairs.
Tonie, thinking the bundle was perhaps a litter of kittens, approached the pile and was stunned to see it was a baby girl.
She told FOX8, “I saw the umbilical cord wrapped up under her arm, so I ran back into the house screaming and hollering.”
Tonie’s son Willie, who was 19 at the time, said:
“We saw her out there wrapped, we were like, ‘Oh my God.’ I called the police and the ambulance.”
The tiny baby (who was later dubbed ‘Baby Doe’ by the media) was rushed to a local hospital, where she was said to be suffering from moderate to severe hypothermia.
Later on, the baby was adopted by her foster mother Carrie Thomas.
Thomas told Fox8:
“I didn’t feel like I would adopt her until I held her in my arms. I picked up up December 19th, and the day I held her in my arms, I knew she would never leave my house.
In light of her struggles, the baby girl was named Angel.
Although Tonie had rescued the baby girl, she had received no updates and wondered about her often throughout the years.
Then, seventeen years later, Tonie’s son saw the baby on TV.
The baby being found in 1999 had attracted a lot of media attention, and 17 years later FOX8 decided to update the public in a segment that was viewed by Tonie’s son, Willie.
Upon seeing the news story, Willie immediately alerted his mother. Tonie then called the station, hoping to be reunited with the baby she had saved so many years ago.
One week later, FOX8 made it happen and was on the scene to capture the event.
Both families met outside Building 1808, the very same place Tonie had found Angel seventeen years ago.
Angel told the family they were a blessing to her.
“It’s just crazy to think that people who never knew me or knew me just for a split second still think about me 17 years later,” she told Fox8.
Angel’s adoptive mother also said, “It feels great to see the pieces of her life finally come together.”
Now that they’ve been reunited, Angel and Tonie’s family plan to stay in touch with each other.
Check out the amazing reunion for yourself below!
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