Daily Mail Reporter
Updated:
23:19 GMT, 2 January 2012
For almost a century, Minka Disbrow tried to find out what became of the baby girl she gave up for adoption after being raped as a teenager.
She hoped, but never imagined, that she would see her daughter Betty Jane again. Her only connection to the child was a black and white photograph of the baby bundled up in blankets shortly after she was born.
Then in 2006, Mrs Disbrow, who turned 100 years old at the end of last month, received a call from Brian Lee who turned out to be her grandson. He then asked if she'd like to speak with Betty Jane - whose name was now Ruth Lee.
Back together: 100-year-old Minka Disbrow (right) is reunited with her daughter Ruth Lee in California after being separated for 77 yearsMrs Disbrow, the daughter of Dutch immigrants, had a tough childhood milking cows on South Dakota dairy farms. In 1928 while enjoying a summer's picnic with girls from a sewing class, the girl and her friend Elizabeth were jumped by three men and both girls were raped.
She said: 'We didn't know what to do. We didn't know what to say. So when we went back, nothing was said.'
When it was discovered she was expecting, her mother and stepfather sent her to a
Lutheran home for pregnant girls. At 17, she gave birth to a
blonde-haired baby and named her Betty
Jane.
She was told she couldn't bring an infant
back to the farm and at the time, a pastor and his wife were looking to
adopt a child. She hoped they could give Betty Jane the home she
couldn't.
Never forgotten: Minka Disbrow was raped when she was 16 and gave birth to a baby girl who she named Betty Jane and gave up for adoptionMs Disbrow said: 'I loved that baby so much. I wanted what was best.'
She never met the couple or knew their
names. But over the years, Mrs Disbrow wrote dozens of letters to the
adoption agency to find out about her daughter. The agency
replied faithfully with updates until there was a change in management
and they lost touch.
Mrs Disbrow went on to marry a fruit
salesman and they had
two children. She worked as a dressmaker, silk saleswoman and school
cafeteria manager across the country from Rhode Island to Minnesota and
Northern California before moving to the seaside town of San Clemente an
hour's drive from San Diego.
Every year, she thought about Betty
Jane on her daughter's birthday, May 22. Five years ago, Mrs Disbrow
prayed she might get the chance to see her.
Accomplished: Minka Disbrow shows off an shows an autographed photo of her grandson Mark Lee, space shuttle astronaut, at her home in San Clemente, California'Lord, if you would just let me see her,' Mrs Disbrow remembered praying. 'I promise you I will never bother her.'
On
July 2, 2006, she received a phone call from a man in Alabama. He started asking the elderly woman about her background. Worried about identity theft, Mrs
Disbrow refused to answer any questions. Then, the man asked if she'd like to speak with her daughter Betty Jane - whose name was now Ruth Lee.
Celebration: Minka Disbrow's 100th birthday card from her long-lost daughter takes pride of place in her Californian apartmentMrs Lee had been raised by a Norwegian pastor and his wife and had gone on to marry and have six children.
One of her son's is the astronaut Mark
Lee, a veteran of four space flights who has circled the world 517
times.
Mrs Less had always known she was adopted and grew up a happy child.
It wasn't
until she was in her 70s that the search for her biological parents
began.
Mrs Lee started suffering from heart
problems and doctors asked about the family's medical history which she knew
nothing about it.
Her son, Brian, decided to try to find out more and
petitioned the court in South Dakota for his mother's adoption records.
He was given 270 pages including a written account of his grandmother's rape and handwritten letters from a young Mrs Disbrow, asking about
her baby.
Mr Lee went online to try to find one of Mrs Disbrow's relatives - possibly through an obituary.
Brian Lee, 54, said: 'I was looking for somebody I thought was probably not living.'
He typed Mrs Disbrow's name into a web directory and was shocked when a phone listing popped up. 'I kind of stopped breathing for a second,' he said.
On the phone with her biological daughter, Mrs Disbrow was in disbelief - especially when she was told the accomplishments of her grandchildren.
A month later, Ruth Lee and her son Brian flew to California. They arrived at her biological mother's apartment with a gigantic bouquet of flowers.
Mrs Disbrow couldn't get over how similar her daughter's hands were to her own while Mrs Lee was amazed at the women's similar taste in clothing. They pored over family photo albums and caught up on the years they had missed.
Mrs Disbrow said: 'It was just like we had never parted. Like you were with the family all your life.'
Since then, the families have met numerous times. Mrs Disbrow has gone to visit grandchildren and great-grandchildren in Wisconsin and Texas. She is planning to travel to Alabama in the spring, where they will celebrate her recent 100th birthday.
Mrs Lee, now 82, said: 'It has been such a surreal, amazing experience that I still think sometimes that I will wake up and it will just be a beautiful dream.'
Mrs Disbrow's daughter Dianna Huhn, 55, of Portland, Oregon, said the reunion has filled a void for her mother.
Mrs Huhn added: 'I have never seen my mother as happy.'
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