JACKSON, MS (Mississippi News Now) -
You've probably had that nagging feeling before that something very important is missing in your life and you can't rest until you find it. That quest finally ended for one Jackson woman after more than a half century of searching.
The anticipation was so thick you could cut it with a knife. Surrounded by family and friends and armed with loving welcome signs, flowers and balloons, Kim Martin was about to realize a dream come true; find the missing puzzle piece in her life...a big sister she never knew.
"She had the picture of my mother and I had pictures of my mother and it's just overwhelming," said Martin."You take your sisters and brothers for granted, but when you don't have them and you find them, you know, you just cherish that time."
Martin says a comment her mom made about a Forest Hill High School also being in New York, fueled her feeling that she was not an only child and her detective work began in earnest. Decades of phone calls and computer searches brought Martin to the moment she longed for at the Jackson-Evers International Airport.
"I just can't wait to hold her. I can't wait to see her face. I just, you know, I can't wait for her to see her niece and nephew and, you know, the family and my friends that's been supporting me, throughout this, too."
That wait ended when 58-year-old Dawn Smythe walked into the waiting arms of the little sister she never knew she had.
"Look at this! We look alike, no? Tell me how you feel? Oh my god! I can't believe this. I never thought I'd be in Mississippi. I learned how to spell it when I was very young. I was the only one that knew how to spell it and I made it here," said Smythe. "People are very nice and I love it. It's a little different from the big apple, but you know what? It's still family no matter what way you go, right sis? 52 years. 52 years in the making. Never knew."
"You know, I did it also for my children, they needed to know who they were and where they came from and where their family was because we knew there was somebody out there," said Martin.
"When you're an only child, you make family with all your friends and I've been very blessed with a lot of friends, but it's not the same as having a sister; and I'm so appreciative that she never stopped looking," said Smythe.
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