Friday, December 21, 2007

man finds mom after 22 years... working with him at Lowe's

After 22 years, Steve Flaig found his biological mother-- at the front of the Lowe's store where he works.

When Steve was born in 1985, his mother knew that she was unable to care for him. So, she made the difficult decision to put him up for adoption. At the time of the adoption, she gave the adoption agency permission to disclose her name if her child ever wanted to find her.

Steve was raised by Pat and Lois Flaig who supported him in the search for his mother. When he turned 18, he went to the adoption agency and learned the name of his biological mother: Christine Tallady.

Steve did Internet search. Unfortunately, the search turned up nothing.

Three years later, he looked at the adoption paperwork again and realized he had misspelled Tallady's name in his Internet search. He had spelled it Talladay, not Tallady.

This time, the search came up with an address-- less than a mile from the Lowe's store where he works.

The next day, Steve mentioned it to his boss who said, "You mean the Chris Tallady who works here?"

Steve was shocked. The woman who worked at the front of the store-- who he said "hello" to casually for months-- was his mother.

Steve didn't know how to approach Christine. After all, it isn't every day you introduce yourself to your mother. So, for two months Steve watched her from a distance wondering how he would do it.

Finally, he went to the adoption agency and told them his situation. A person at the agency volunteered to call Christine.

Christine was surprised to get the call and even more shocked to learn that she had been working with her own son.

"It was a shock. I started crying. I figured he would call me sometime, but not like this." said Christine.

Christine was overcome with joy and wept. Later that day, Steve and Christine said hello for the first time as mother and son. They are catching up for lost time.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2004081699_found19.html

2 comments:

ChampDog said...

I saw this news too in the TV. Not only searching for human, sometimes what you're looking for in life, it is just very nearby you.

Carol said...

This actually made me a little misty. What a wonderful story!! :)