This is my daughter. When she was 16, Joanne Loewenstern learned that she was adopted.
這是我女兒。喬安妮·洛文斯頓16歲時得知自己是被收養的。
Until that day, she'd believed that her adoptive parents were her birth parents.
那天之前,她都認為自己的養父母是自己的生父母。
Instead, they told her that her birth mother was a woman named Lillian Feinsilver
相反,他們告訴喬安妮,她的生母是一位名叫莉蓮·費西爾弗的女性。
and that she had died days after giving birth to her at Bellevue Hospital in New York City.
在喬安妮出生幾天后,莉蓮就在紐約貝爾維尤醫院去世。
Feeling betrayed and confused, Joanne spent many nights crying, wondering what her birth mother had been like.
喬安妮感覺被背叛了,困惑的她哭了很多個晚上,想知道她的生母是什么樣的人。
And yet, some part of her believed her mother was still alive. The doubts nagged Joanne for years.
然而,她的一部分相信她的母親還活著。這些疑問困擾了喬安妮多年。
After watching this emotional turmoil, Shelley Loewenstern, Joanne's daughter-in-law, suggested taking a DNA test.
喬安妮的兒媳雪莉·洛文斯頓看到了她的情感困擾,她建議喬安妮去做一個DNA測試。
That was in 2017, and Joanne was already 79 years old.
那是在2017年,喬安妮已經79歲了。
Even if her mother had passed years before, Shelley reasoned, learning something about her biological family might give Joanne some peace.
雪莉認為,即使她的母親已于多年前去世,了解一下她的血緣關系能給喬安妮帶來平靜。
So Joanne took the test, and about a year later Shelley received a message on ancestry.com from a man named Sam Ciminieri, whose genetic report had matched him with Joanne.
所以喬安妮去做了測驗,約一年后,雪莉在ancestry.com上收到了一條來自山姆·西米涅里的信息,他的基因報告與喬安妮相符。
Shelley immediately wrote back to Sam, asking whether he knew a Lillian Feinsilver.
雪萊立即給山姆回信,問他是否認識一個叫莉蓮·費西爾弗的人。
Yes, Sam said, that was his mother's name. Almost unbelievably, she was alive, at age 100—Joanne had been right all along.
是的,薩姆說,那是他母親的名字。令人難以置信的是,她還活著,時年100歲——喬安妮一直都是對的。
But there were more shocks to come. Sam said that Lillian lived in an assisted-living facility in Port St. Lucie, Florida.
但是讓人震驚的事還有更多。山姆說莉蓮住在佛羅里達州圣露西港的一家養老機構里。

Joanne lived in Boca Raton, less than 80 miles down the interstate.
喬安妮住在博卡拉頓,沿著州際公路不到80英里。
"As it turns out," Joanne's son, Elliot Loewenstern, told the Washington Post, "we have a whole other family we never would have discovered."
喬安妮的兒子埃利奧特·洛文斯頓告訴《華盛頓郵報》,“結果是,我們還有一個我們永遠不會發現的完整的家庭。”
The families quickly planned a reunion at the facility where Lillian lived.
這家人很快計劃在莉蓮住的地方團聚。
A month later, Joanne found herself sitting across from the mother she had searched for her whole life.
一個月后,喬安妮就坐在她一輩子都在尋找的母親的對面。
Elliot, Sam, Shelley, and one of Joanne's grandsons looked on. Lillian, who suffers from dementia and uses a wheelchair, was silent.
艾略特、薩姆、謝莉和喬安妮的一個孫子在她們旁邊。莉蓮患有癡呆癥,需要坐輪椅,她默不作聲。
"I don't know if she recognizes me," Joanne said. She told Lillian that she had been adopted in 1938 and that she'd been told her birth mother had passed away.
喬安妮說,“我不知道她是否認得出我。”她告訴莉蓮,她是在1938年被收養的,她被告知自己的生母已經去世了。
No response. Joanne started to cry. At that point her mother perked up, as if she had started to understand.
沒有回應。喬安妮哭了起來。這時她母親精神一振,好像她已經開始明白了。
Joanne excitedly began telling Lillian all about her children and grandchildren. Lillian smiled.
喬安妮開始激動地告訴莉蓮所有關于她的兒孫的事情。莉蓮笑了。
Then she said the words Joanne had waited more than 60 years to hear: "This is my daughter."
然后她說了喬安妮等了60多年才聽到的話:“這是我的女兒。”
The Loewensterns learned that over the years, Lillian had repeatedly told her family that she "lost her daughter."
洛文斯頓一家人才知道,這些年來,莉蓮不斷地告訴她的家人“她女兒丟了”。
Everyone, including Lillian, assumed that the baby had died.
每個人,包括莉蓮,都以為孩子已經死了。
Joanne's family speculates that because Lillian was unmarried when she gave birth, the baby was taken away and put up for adoption.
喬安妮的家人推測,因為莉蓮生孩子的時候還沒有結婚,所以孩子被帶走了,讓別人收養。
But now that the two women had been unexpectedly reunited, none of that mattered so much anymore.
但是現在這對母女出人意料地團聚了,那些事都不重要了。
They spent time that first afternoon together coloring with colored pencils, which just happens to be a favorite hobby for both of them.
他們那天下午在一塊用彩鉛作畫,這碰巧是兩個人最喜歡的愛好。
When Joanne visited again three days later, Lillian remembered quickly who she was.
喬安妮三天后再次拜訪莉蓮的時候,她很快就記起喬安妮是誰了。
Now they see each other every few weeks to color, play games, and enjoy the time they have together.
現在他們每隔幾周就會見面,一起涂色,玩游戲,享受在一起的時光。
"I'm proud," Joanne told WPTV. "This is something I wanted to do all my life."
喬安妮告訴西棕櫚灘電視臺,“我很自豪,這就是我一生都想做的事情。”