Families usually get larger when
babies are born or weddings take place. But
one 76 year old Edwardsburg woman just welcomed an 83 year old woman into her
family. She's her sister and the two
just met for the very first time.
Betty Lou Overholser has been busy
writing an autobiography for seven years.
"I'm writing this book for my
grandchildren so they can get to know who I really am," said Betty Lou.
But she's got a story that more than
just her grandchildren will want to read.
"I was adopted when I was six. My mother died when she was 32." Betty Lou said her dad just couldn't take
care of her and her siblings. So they
were all adopted by different families. She
remembers clearly though that she had a baby sister. "I need to
finish this one chapter called where in the world is Baby Ruth? Not the Candy Bar,"
said Betty Lou.
So she enlisted the help of her own
daughter Patti to help find Baby Ruth. "She
always wanted to find out about this little baby and what happened to her,"
said Patti. Their journey led
them to the web site ancestry.com, where she made a discovery. She still hasn't found Baby Ruth but she
learned she has another sister named Delores living in Minnesota. So earlier this week Betty Lou and her
daughters drove to Minnesota
to meet her sister for the first time.
The two talked for hours. "We just
immediately fell in love," said Betty Lou. Sharing stories and similarities, "we were the same about loving art. Our eyebrows were the same and our mouth is
very similar."
Betty Lou said finding Delores is a
miracle. But the journey isn't over. And neither is Betty Lou's book. She's still hoping to close the chapter on
Baby Ruth. "We
have to find her and then I can finish my book."
Betty Lou is going to get some help
in finding her family. Friday
ancestry.com called her and said they are putting a research team together to
find Ruth and get all of her siblings together for a reunion.
And Betty Lou has already found
another sibling since returning from Minnesota
Wednesday night. Yesterday she talked to
her older brother Jack for the first time since the 70's. Her other older brother Dick passed away in
1974. Betty Lou said she and Dick found
each other in 1973 and became very close during the year before he died.
By discovering Delores, Betty Lou
also discovered that Jack and Dick aren't her only brothers. She has a brother Bill that lives in Louisiana. Betty Lou tells us by finding all these
siblings she is also finding cousins and her five children are learning they
have new cousins as well.
