Mother reunites with kidnapped daughter 53 years later
A Virginia mother was reunited with her daughter who was
kidnapped more than 50 years ago.
Nothing breaks a mother’s heart like losing a child, especially when the child is stolen from you.
Sadly, millions of mothers around the world have to go through that pain.
According to Globalmissing.org, in America alone, 460,000 children are reported missing every year.
Sarah Peterson is one mother who lost her child when she was only four months old.
The mother from Virginia last saw her daughter, Roberta Lavonne Peterson, fifty-three years ago before she was kidnapped by her nanny, Alberta Lathern.
She told WJLA that attempts to find her daughter were unsuccessful.
The mom said police told her she didn’t have enough proof to show that her daughter was stolen.
Alberta, the woman Sarah had hired to look after her daughter, kidnapped Roberta when she was just four months old.
The pain was so bad that Sarah would approach any woman she saw holding a baby, hoping it was her daughter.
“I would just run to the street and say is that her, is that her. I always looked at somebody’s child. Maybe that’s her. It’s like a death and that’s how it was. That my baby had died,” Sarah told WJLA.
But, a miracle happened in 2019. According to the publication, Sarah’s sister Deborah and Roberta’s daughter Ursula were picking up food at the same time, at the same soup kitchen in Alexandria, when their same last names were called at the same time.
This led to them realising that they are related, and it also led to the families finally connecting.
The family reunited in January 2019.
Roberta says she never stopped praying for her mother, even though the lady who kidnapped her raised her well. She said the woman, who is now deceased, told her she was adopted.
“I always prayed one day. Always, always, always. I always prayed for my momma. You just never, never know. There are so many people out here looking for their family. They just got to have faith. Have faith and never give up. Never give up. Because there’s hope. There’s always hope,” Roberta said during the interview with the publication.
The two are now reportedly inseparable.
READ: Mom whose baby died at creche: "I didn’t even kiss her goodbye”