Score one for the power of social media.
What started out as a simple Facebook post in early March became an improbable family reunion this week.
(Facebook)
Katheryn Deprill, known as the “Burger King baby” after she was abandoned in a restroom as an hours-old newborn in Allentown, Pennsylvania, 27 years ago, reached out to her birth mother by making a simple request.
“I want her to know that I am not mad at her for what she did, however I have so many questions to ask her and also to start a relationship with my biological mother.”
“Please help me find her by sharing my post,” she added. “Maybe she will see this.”
She did. And on Monday, the two women met.
“They immediately hugged,” said Jim Waldron, an attorney who arranged the meeting at the request of Deprill’s birth mother told CNN affiliate WFMZ. “It was exciting, emotional, dramatic.”
‘She had no other means’
Waldron said Deprill’s birth mother had been raped while traveling in another country and become pregnant. She was able to keep the pregnancy a secret from her parents, but knew she couldn’t take care of the baby.
“She left the baby in a location where the baby would be found and cared for,” Waldron said. “She kissed the baby on the forehead … and left.”
Deprill told the affiliate her mother “was extremely upset that she had to leave me and it wasn’t what she wanted, but she felt she had no other means. She was only 17 years old.
“She left me somewhere she knew I’d be found. She did not want to throw me away.”
Outpouring of emotions
The reunion was also attended by Deprill’s adoptive mom and her birth mom’s husband.
Deprill declined to identify her birth mom, saying “she did not want to be in the limelight.”
The meeting sparked an outpouring of emotions on Facebook.
“So happy you found your biological mom and send hugs to your adoptive mom for not trying to prevent it,” posted Kathleen Canavan-Hurley. “She must be a lovely lady to stand beside you and encourage your decisions.”
“So happy for both of you! I hope this is the beginning of a wonderful relationship!” Monica Ellis-Applegate said.
It just might be.
Deprill told the affiliate that her birth mother wants to be involved her life, and she hopes they’ll meet again soon.
