Mother and daughter reunite after 77 years

A 100-year-old mother by the name of Minka Disbrow always wanted to find out what became of her daughter given up for adoption and she found out the reality after 77 years of her life.

Minka Disbrow never thought that she would ever be able to see her daughter, who she had at the age of 17, again. Her prayers got answered after 77 years of her life as mother and lost daughter finally reunited after all those years.

Minka Disbrow was just 17-year-old when she had her first daughter. She got raped at that age and had to give the baby up for adoption, as she was not allowed to keep her.

Disbrow was the daughter of Dutch immigrants. She had a tough childhood working on a dairy farm, milking cows and doing other such chores. Her parents did not think that she needed to go to school, maintaining that only children who had nothing else to do were sent to school.

Minka Disbrow finished her eighth grade in a country schoolhouse and later worked long hours in the dairy farm.

On a hot summer day in 1928, Minka Disbrow went picnicking with girls from a sewing class to the fields. There she and her friend, Elizabeth, went for a walk and both were raped by two men. At that time, Disbrow and Elizabeth had no idea what had happened to them and they did not tell anyone about the incident at home.

A few months later, Minka Disbrow’s body began to change and her parents discovered that she was pregnant. Her parents sent her to a Lutheran home for pregnant girls and there she gave birth to a baby girl and named her “Betty Jane”.

Disbrow really wanted to keep the baby, but her mother told her that she could not keep a baby back at the farm and she had to give her up for adoption. A pastor and his wife adopted Betty Jane and Disbrow was left with nothing but her baby’s memory and a black and white picture.

Initially, Disbrow kept in touch with the adoption service company to keep getting updates about her daughter, but later the management of the company changed and Disbrow lost touch with her daughter completely.

After praying hard for all those years to hear about her daughter again, Disbrow’s prayers got answered in 2006, as a man called her up and told her that he was the son of Betty Jane, who was now Ruth Lee.

The son had found out about his mother’s biological mother from the internet and wanted both of them to meet. The reunion of Minka Disbrow and Ruth Lee took place in 2006 and mother and daughter could not have been happier. Now both families visit each other regularly and are very happy to get reunited.