“In high school, I never really questioned the fact that her parents seemed a lot older. Of course, that’s something you don’t really ask about, anyway,” said Herman Smith, 49.

He said after the two were married, he then learned the situation.

“It was always my goal to get the two of them reunited,” he said.

Smith said he tried several years ago with different searching agencies he’d seen advertised, but each agency wanted several thousand dollars up front.

“I made friends with someone who worked in the Social Security office, and he said he’d gladly help me find her because that’s something they do quite often. But just before he’d finished the search, he died on Thanksgiving Day 2002. Karen said that was a sign that we shouldn’t press the issue, but I never give up and was convinced she could be found,” he said.

“All we knew was her name and birthplace and the fact that she lived in Memphis around 1950, when she met Charles,” he said.

This fall Smith again sought the help of the Social Security Administration.

Surprisingly, the phone rang a few days later with the results of the search.

“They said they’d found her, and Karen needed to write a letter expressing why she wanted to find her, and they would then forward the letter to her. If she wanted to contact Karen, then she could,” he said.

Apparently, Tew, now 68, was just as eager to reunite with her daughter because the phone call came the day she received the letter.

“I answered the phone, and she said, Is this Karen Smith?’ I said yes, and she said, This is your birth mother.’ What do you say to that?” said Smith.

The two started talking more and more, sometimes as often as several times a week, and they exchanged both old and current photos.

After several months of phone conversations, the two decided it was time to meet face to face.

She had never met her mother, but two weeks ago for her 48th birthday, Herman Smith gave his wife the best gift he could think to give her a reunion visit.

“I was so nervous. It was so overwhelming. I just kept thinking, Maybe something will happen so we can’t go,’ but everything we planned went so smoothly. It was incredible,” she said.

The Smiths left Vicksburg Dec. 11 in route to Raleigh, N.C.

“When we got there on the 12th, they had been waiting for us for nearly two hours,” said Herman Smith.

After the two hugged and cried, it was time for some serious questions to be answered.

“I learned that my mother and father were never married, but were together for several years. She signed my birth certificate as Mrs. Charles Clevenger, and she always pressured him to get married, but he wanted to play and wasn’t ready to settle down,” said Karen Smith.

She also learned the reason she was left with the Shaws.

“It wasn’t that my mother didn’t want to take me. Apparently there were some really harsh feelings and words shared between my mother and my (paternal) grandmother. She was forced to leave right after I was born, and she kept trying to come back and get me, but my grandmother would tell her she was unfit and there were restraining orders against her. I don’t think there really were, but my mother was very intimidated by her,” she said.

Smith said her mother and her stepfather, Lewis Tew, celebrated their 47th wedding anniversary Dec. 13, the day after her 48th birthday.

“I always assumed she was a bad person someone I didn’t need to know. But she wasn’t. She was a good person. She found love after my father and was married exactly one year and one day after I was born. They’ve been married ever since, and he’s a good person, too,” she said.

Smith also learned she has one 39-year-old half-brother, and she had another half-brother who would now be in his early 40s, but died at 4.

“Both of my half-brothers have or had Down syndrome and could never have children. One of the first questions my mother asked me was if she had any grandchildren. I told her yes, a 24-year-old boy and 18-year-old girl from my first marriage, and a 19-year-old boy from Herman’s first marriage. She was so excited and can’t wait to meet them,” she said.

Herman Smith said he immediately noticed many similarities between his wife and her mother.

“They talk alike, they look alike and they have the same mannerisms. They both really love cats, and they seem to like the same types of food. It was really amazing,” he said.

Karen Smith said since she’s been reunited with her mother it’s as if the two were never apart. Plans are in the making for the Tews to travel to Vicksburg.

“The puzzle is put together now. I’m so glad we found each other. As it turned out, she’d tried to search for me before, too. I’m just lucky she’s still around,” she said.

Smith said her mother’s health is not the best after suffering a brain aneurysm years ago and a mild stroke recently.

She said she’s also smoked since she was 8 years old, and the one request she made to her mother was to try to stop smoking. Surprisingly, Tew said she’d try.

“I told her, Mom, I just now found you. I’d like to keep you around for a while,” she said.