Mother, daughter to meet after 67 years
Nine children knew nothing of sibling
CALGARY — Every Aug. 3, Bessie Sedor would bake a cake. Her family would always ask what was the special occasion, but she would never tell. “Just to celebrate the day,” she’d say. But the Calgarian had a secret for nearly seven decades. It wasn’t until her 90th birthday two years ago that she told it. Before her nine children were born, an unmarried Sedor had given birth to a baby girl, born Aug. 3, 1945, and gave her up for adoption.
After years of trying to find one another, the mother and daughter will meet Sept. 6 in Calgary. When Sedor’s son, Daryl, found out he had a secret sibling, he started tracking her down.
Armed with her birthdate and adoptive name, Carole Lynn Winemaster, he contacted adoption agencies and went online, eventually finding that his sister had married and went by the name Knight. But he still couldn’t find her.
Then in February, Daryl tested the “six degrees of separation” theory on Facebook, asking his friends if anyone knew Carole Lynn Knight. Within three days, he was contacted by a woman who claimed she is Knight’s daughter. She told Daryl her mother lives in Oregon and gave him her phone number.
He phoned her, but both needed to be sure they were who they said they were and asked lots of questions.
“At first, what was going through my mind was, what kind of a scam is this?” Knight said. But once they confirmed their identities, Knight said she was in disbelief. She had been searching for her birth mother since she was 11.
When Daryl told his mother he found Knight, she was ecstatic. Daryl gave his mother a photo of Knight, which she keeps with her in her room at the care centre where she has been since she fell and broke her hip in April. “She just hugs that picture and holds it,” he said.