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Mother and son reunite on Thanksgiving after 51 years apart

Posted at 9:15 PM, Nov 23, 2017
and last updated 2017-11-25 14:04:22-05

It was a very special and emotional Thanksgiving for a mother and son who reunited after 51 years.

Marilyn Parker gave up her son, Dave Foerer for adoption back in the 1960's when he was born. Years passed and the mother and son both say they always felt a part of them missing.  

"A little nervous but very very excited," said Froerer, who has not met his mother since he was born. 

"We have been living separate lives," Parker said.

Little did Froerer know, his mother gave him up for adoption when she was 16 years old.

Parker says she didn't plan on getting pregnant with her high school boyfriend and was horrified, humiliated and ashamed. She didn't want to bring a baby into a life that was not prepared to take care of him.

She says when she gave birth, doctors didn't tell her the baby's gender or let her hold him. 

Parker says years went by and she thought about him every day.

"I had almost given up," she said. "I just thought you know what every year on his birthday it was such a special day in my heart and I just always wondered."

Froerer says he wondered the same thing — so much so, that just this past year he took a DNA test and from a list of matches found a second cousin that would link him up to his mom. 

"I open my email September 19 and it said 'It think I am your birth mother?'" he said.

After that, they talked on the phone every day and decided to meet for the first time to spend Thanksgiving in Tucson, Arizona together.