YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — An Ohio woman searching for her biological mom got the surprise of her life Monday when she learned her mother was a coworker. WKBN reports the Ohio Dept of Healthreleased birth records last month for those born between Jan. 1, 1964 and Sept. 18, 1996. La-Sonya Mitchell Clark, 38, got her records, including her mother’s name, in the mail on Monday. La-Sonya looked up her mother’s name, Francine Simmons, on Facebook where she learned the two women work at the same company.
“There’s a Francine that works at my job. She works in VR and she works at the front desk,” she told WKBN.
She reached out to her friends on social media. A day later, she got a phone call.
“She called me and I said, ‘Is this Ms. Francine?’ She said, yes. I said, ‘I think I’m your daughter’,” La-Sonya said.
“I’m still in shock. It’s amazing,” Francine said.
She said she always wanted to reconnect with her daughter, but never knew how.
“I got pregnant when I was 14. I had her when I was 15. I was put in a home, a girl’s home. Had her. Got to hold her. Didn’t get to name her, but I named her myself in my heart all these years,” Francine said.
La-Sonya also learned she has three other sisters she didn’t even know about. One works with her as well. Mom and daughter live just six minutes from each other in Youngstown.
