99-Year-Old Mother Reunites With Daughter She Gave Up

A Wisconsin mother who gave up her child more than 80 years ago was finally reunited with her daughter.

At first glance, Eileen Wagner’s decision to give up her daughter at birth may seem cruel, but the story is much more complicated than it seems.

When Wagner was 16 years old, she and a female friend were on the way home from the library when they ran into two young men, one of whom was known by Wagner’s friend. One of the boys suggested they take a shortcut through a park so the girls could make their 10 p.m. curfew.

Wagner found herself alone with one of the men, who then reportedly raped her. She never saw her attacker again, but found later that she was carrying his baby.

She says she was hesitant to share her pregnancy with her parents, telling the Chicago Tribune, “In those days, it was such an embarrassment.”

Wagner stayed at a home in Milwaukee for young women with unwanted pregnancies during the last three months of her pregnancy.

In April 1933, she gave birth to a daughter, Beverly Ann, who is now 83 years old. Beverly Ann was in the care of the Children’s Home and Aid Society of Wisconsin for two years before she was adopted by George and Dorothy Schmidt, reports the Daily Mail.

Now named Dorien Hammann, Wagner’s daughter described her childhood as happy. Though she always knew she was adopted, Hammann says she never had any desire to find her birth parents.

Over 80 years later, Hammann’s daughter-in-law began looking for Hammann’s birth mother and found her through an obituary that listed Wagner by name, reports Find My Family Magazine.

After several phone calls, Wagner and Hammann met in person for the first time since Hammann’s adoption.

Hammann told the Chicago Tribune: “It is still so hard to believe that at my age, my birth mother is still alive. I get chills and goose bumps all at the same time when I think of this.”

After reconnecting with her daughter, Wagner shared the story with her two other children for the first time.

On May 29, Wagner celebrated her 100th birthday surrounded, for the first time, by all three of her children.

Sources: Chicago Tribune, Find My Family Magazine, Daily Mail / Photo credit: Anthony Souffle/Chicago Tribune