Speaking to BBC, Calvin Barrett said growing up without a mother was tough, and he longed for the day they would be reunited. Barrett last saw his mother when six, and their grandparents raised him and his brother. The 64-year old from the US searched for his 85-year-old mother, Molly Payne, from the UK for almost 40 years.
After Barrett’s daughter did an ancestry DNA test that matched with Payne’s nephew, they were finally reunited.
Payne met Barrett’s dad while he was in the American army base in the UK, and they got married in 1955. After that, they moved to the US, but she returned to the UK two years later. “I had a complete breakdown and could not even take care of myself, let alone my children,” Payne explained. She planned on returning to the US, but it never happened. Payne said she did not just leave Barrette and his brother, instead claiming they were taken from her.
After his father died in 1984, Barrett started looking for his mother, saying he missed her. When his daughter informed him she had tracked down Payne in April, he was stunned. “It was amazing, it brings tears to my eyes now,” he said.
Mother and son started chatting on Facebook in May before he flew to the UK in early September. “I ran right up to her and gave her a big hug. Then, I started crying like a baby,” Barrett narrated. According to Barrett, reuniting with his mother filled an empty spot in his heart.