In 1941, Pauline Lott was taken into custody by the Mississippi Welfare Department. She was an unwed mother and the state said they would pay for medical care and birthing bills if she gave up her son for adoption.
Lott agreed, so she dressed her baby boy in a blue suit and cap, and handed him over to his adoptive parents. His new parents allowed him to keep his name, Charles Bruce Pate.
For decades, Lott would long to find her son, and Pate would long to find his mother. Yet, it would take decades of searching before he finally found her.
"I didn't know who I was," Pate told The Tennessean. "I was afraid when I did find my family, I would probably visit the grave and not her."
Finally, Pate used Ancestry.com and was able to find the obituary of Lott's twin brother, Jessie Paul Lott. The obituary listed the names of surviving family members. Pate was then able to track down Lott's nephew. The nephew put Pate in contact with his birth mother, and the rest is history.
Relatives drove Pate down to meet his mom, and for the first time in 73 years, he got to kiss his mother on the cheek. Now, the two speak on the phone every day. Pate feels like he got the best of both worlds: adoptive parents who loved him, and a new bond with his birth mother.
"It helps me to know who I am now, where I came from," he said. "I don't know what I did when I didn't know her."
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