- April 29, 2024
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Just over two weeks ago, Karen Emmett Mills answered the phone in her Palm Coast home to a voice she’d been hoping to hear for most of her life.
“I heard on the line, ‘Karen, this is your sister, Judy,’” Mills said. “I just started crying. I couldn’t believe it.”
Mills, 72, was separated from her half-sister, Judy Jenkins Hall, 65, when Hall was born. Mills and her older brother were being raised by their grandparents during the Depression when Hall was born. Because money was already tight, the household couldn’t afford another child, so Hall was put up for adoption.
In 2002, at 55 years old, Hall began a decade-long search to find her biological family.
“Two weeks before this all happened, I was totally alone,” Hall said in a phone interview. “It just makes you feel whole again; like you have a real family.”
Hall’s adoptive parents both died in the late 1980s — first her mother than then her father — and after that, she said her connections with her adoptive family all but dissolved.
“I’ve been on my own for 14 years,” Hall said. “That’s what made me want to find my real family.”
About a decade ago, Hall began to experiment with websites that let her access archives of ancestries and family histories; but with no clue other than her birth mother’s name, the search was tedious and, for years, fruitless.
During this time, Mills wished she could come to know her half-sister, whose existence she didn’t learn of until she was 18, but she didn’t have any information with which to start a search. Now, after finally coming into contact with Hall, Mills said she feels as if a weight has been lifted from her shoulders.
“It’s changed my life around,” Mills said. “In my family, there’s hardly anyone left anymore. We’ve just gained so much — and all so fast. I’m still shocked.”
About a month ago, Hall finally found a break in her search when she passed her biological mother’s name to a friend who researches city records. This friend eventually found the name Betty Gerrad — Hall’s aunt.
Summoning all her resolve, Hall picked up the phone to introduce herself.
“At first, there was this really long silence,” Hall said. “And then Aunt Betty said, ‘Judy, we’ve been looking for you for 65 years. Welcome back to the family.’”
Through their aunt, the half sisters were also able to connect — though not in person yet. While Mills lives in Palm Coast, her half-sister lives in Youngstown, Ohio. Both are currently suffering health issues, so coordinating an in-person meeting has been challenging. Mills said she hopes to drive north to meet Hall in person sometime in September.
In the meantime, the women are talking on the phone for several hours a day and emailing each other photos in between calls.
“There’s a lot of catching up to do,” Mills said. “But it’s also like we’ve known each other all along because we’re so similar.”
Both women said their newfound connection has brought something to their lives that had before seemed missing.
“I more or less grew up on my own,” Hall said. “But now, no matter what, I have to put up with her, and she has to put up with me. No matter what, she’s there.”
