Woman, 82, Tracks Down and Meets 96-Year-Old Birth Mother

Betty Morrell, left, and her birthmother, Lena Pierce, 96, are reunited at the Greater Binghamton Airport. Morrell’s granddaughter, Kimberly Miccio, holding her own daughter, accompanied Morrell to Binghamton from Spring Hill, Fla., where they both live. Jan. 15, 2016 Kimberly Miccio via AP

Eighty-two years after she was born to a teenage girl and put up for adoption, Betty Morrell finally has met her 96-year-old birth mother, thanks to the dogged persistence of her granddaughter during 20 years of searching.

And as a bonus, she has forged a close friendship with a sister she never knew she had.

“After my adoptive parents died, that’s when I started looking,” Betty Morrell said Thursday by phone from her home in Spring Hill, Florida. “Being that it was a closed adoption, it’s like hitting a brick wall because you can’t get any information.”

"Being that it was a closed adoption, it's like hitting a brick wall because you can't get any information."

— Betty Morrell