Separated by Adoption, Siblings Reunite After 45 Years

She remembers chasing fireflies in the late 1960s at dusk in Old Hickory, Tenn. with her older brother, who was 5, outside their grandparents' home.

Suzy, now a Mission Viejo resident, remembers Old Hickory as a 3-year-old would: the feel of her favorite cotton pajamas, the warm, soft sound of her grandmother's voice and playing into the evening with her only sibling, Donald.

The two children were born of the same mother, a teen who worked in the cafeteria of a DuPont plant—DuPont being the principal employer in Old Hickory. For their two teen parents, the burden of school, work and two young kids became too great.

"One day I had Suzy playing with me, everything was great," Donald Maxey recalls. "The next day she was gone. I always thought, 'Well, if I never saw my sister on Earth, I'll see her in Heaven.'"

Maxey didn't have to wait that long. On Nov. 12, after scouring the Internet for possible matches, Donna "Suzy" Elaine Blume reached out to her brother via Facebook, ending their four-and-a-half decade separation.

"I just started shaking," Maxey said. "I was a nervous wreck. I couldn't see the road I was crying so hard. I got home and really let loose."

Torn Apart

After being raised by her grandparents, Blume was put up for adoption and spent the rest of her childhood in foster care, she said. But years later, it's hard for either brother or sister to explain exactly why.

Maxey said Blume's biological father was never in the picture. The two children lived with their grandparents, the parents of his biological father, Donald Maxey, Sr.

Maxey Jr. said that his father believed giving their daughter up for adoption would help mend their relationship. Blume said her mother made the decision.

A week after Suzy was put into foster care, their mother left for good.

Soon after, the grandparents who raised her tried to reclaim Suzy, but with no success, Blume said.

"I believe my Dad and my biological mother Elaine had to put Suzy up for adoption," Maxey said. "Lord knows I wish they'd kept her.

"Back in them days, times was different, especially down here in the South. The situation back then at the time, they thought the best thing to do. I hate that with everything that was in me. I had no say-so."

Blume spent the next two years in the care of a small handful of foster families, all members of the Edgefield United Methodist church in Piney Flats, Tenn. At age 5 she was adopted, moved to Nashville and later Toledo, Ohio.

Her foster family told her she had been neglected and abused, and that she had been malnourished when they took her in.

That was not true, Maxey said.

"Lord knows that child was taken care of," he said. "Suzy was a fat little baby who had brand new clothes."

Blume now feels she was lied to for her own protection.

"They told me crazy things," she said. "I thought, 'Well, they're adults, they probably know.' I understand why they told me bad things about my family, so in my mind it was OK that I was being hidden," she said.

When Blume started kindergarten, she remembered telling friends her other name was Suzy. But at home she was now called Donna.

Maxey Sr. and his parents took the adoption hard, Blume said.

"They would no longer celebrate holidays or birthdays as normal people would," she said. "It was not the same emotionally. He said his dad was never the same after that. He became this dark, brooding, silent—I'm trying to imagine a 5-year-old boy seeing his dad make a huge change like that and trying to understand."

Eventually Maxey Sr. found another woman who had two children from a previous marriage. Maxey Jr. would have two step-siblings and a half-brother. But he never forgot the little sister that he lost.

Reunited

On Dec. 14 at 12:25 p.m., Maxey touched down in California for the first time in his life. He was prepared for tears of joy.

Blume waited at the baggage claim. She said her heart felt like it had leapt into her throat.

Maxey walked through the long corridor to the baggage claim. After spotting his long, lost sister, he tossed his carry-on baggage to the ground and opened his arms wide.

As they hugged, Blume kicked her feet into the air.

A few seconds later, Maxey met his niece Marielle and brother-in-law for the first time.

For the past month, the two have been reacquainting themselves via phone, Facebook and now in-person.

"I'm asking him the silliest things because I haven't seen him in 45 years," she said.

They've learned that they share the same favorite color: blue. They also share the same bone structure and speech patterns.

There are differences, too.

"He's totally Republican and I'm totally not," Blume said.

Blume is happy to have a link to her family history, partly because it will give her a firmer understanding of her family medical history. And partly because it helps answer her decades-old questions about her own early history.

Maxey is glad his sister is safe and well.

"I didn't know if she'd be living on the streets," he said. "I'm just happy that she's done so well with her life. Her husband seems like a great guy. Her work ethic seems like, the things she has done through her life, it seems like she's had a pretty productive life."

Maxey and Blume are spending this week sightseeing, sharing memories and reconnecting as brother and sister.