It was unthinkable in every way. When Dave Hickman was 14 years old, he and his grandfather went hunting. After hearing a strange cooing sound, Dave decided to investigate.
He discovered a baby abandoned in the woods. She was soaking wet, her lips blue, wrapped in nothing but a towel. That was in 1955 and for 58 years, Dave couldn't shake what had happened.
"I've seen that image of her laying in the weeds, and me standing on top of the fence every day of my life. And I'll probably always see that," he says.
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Dave said goodbye but he had no idea where the little one had gone. He's been trying his whole life to find out what happened to her so that he can get some closure.
Then, one day, he gets a call from retired sheriff John Catey that changed everything…
In 1955, Dave Hickman went hunting with his grandma. While he was in the woods he heard a strange cooing noise.
"September 22, 1955, I'd been hunting with my grandfather. And I kept hearing a very odd sound. It wasn't the sound of a baby crying, it was more of a soft cooing sound. I said, 'I have to find out what this is.' So I started walking up the fence," he told CBS.
That's when he discovered the unthinkable: a freezing cold baby girl.
"I got on top of the fence, I looked down, and there was a little baby. She was soaking wet. Her lips were blue. She was just wrapped in a towel. My grandfather said, 'We have to do something real quick, we have to get help for the baby'," he said.
Dave and his grandfather took the baby girl to the authorities. She was given the name Roseann Wayne.
The story about the 14-year-old boy who saved the soaking wet baby girl even made the news back then. But for Dave, the story wouldn't end at the close of a newspaper.
A few weeks later, Dave was heartbroken to have to say goodbye to Roseann when she was adopted.
"They handed her to me and they said, 'She's being adopted next week.' They had her wrapped in a blanket. She was sound asleep. So I got to say goodbye to her," he said.
But he had no idea where she was being taken.
Dave spent the next 58 years trying to find the little girl he saved. But it wasn't until 2013 that retired sheriff John Catey called him with the big news.
"[Catey] said, 'Dave write down this name and this phone number — Mary Ellen Suey and her phone number.' I said, 'OK John, I said who's that?' (He said) 'That's your little girl,' " Dave recalls.
Dave found Mary Ellen Suey. "I've seen that image of her laying in the weeds, and me standing on top of the fence every day of my life. And I'll probably always see that, but at least now I know there's a happy ending."
Watch the pair reunite for the first time in 58 years in the video below!
Please SHARE if you think Dave and Mary Ellen are going to be great friends now!
