Facebook has helped reunite a mother and a daughter who had been separated for nearly half a century
Stephanie Phillips used the social network site to track down her mom Joan Wehrmeyer, who she had last been with as a baby in the 1960s.
The pair shared an emotional embrace when they finally met in the Two Georges restaurant at Deerfield Beach on Tuesday - less than a month after they had been reconnected through the social networking site.
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Wehrmeyer, then known under her maiden name of Courchene, was just 17 when she had married Richard Botwin.
Phillips was born soon after the marriage, but after falling out with her husband’s family, Wehrmeyer said that she felt she had no option but to go, leaving her daughter in the care of Botwin.
While Phillips stayed with her father in New Jersey, her mother, who is now 67, moved to South Florida and remarried. She went on to have one child naturally and adopted another and now lives in Coral Springs.
Phillips, now 48, who lives in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania described meeting Wehrmeyer as a dream come true.
“As I was growing up I was never allowed to ask any questions,” a major newspaper quoted Phillips as telling a news channel.
“It was a completely taboo subject,” she said.
Phillips had searched for her mother with her husband Rodney on several occasions over the years, but despite failing to track her down, they both refused to give up.
Hubby Rodney had promised his desperate wife that they would find her mother.
The opportunity arose when she discovered her mother’s maiden name, age and where she was from while caring for her ailing aunt. Then it was down to Facebook.
Fortunately, her mother had used her maiden name when she set up her profile and Rodney was able to reconnect with her.
After sending a couple of messages through the site the couple finally got a reply on June 18, with Wehrmeyer confirming that she was Phillips’ mother.
The duo are now looking forward to getting reacquainted with one another.
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