Life

Mom & Daughter's Emotional Reunion After 50 Years

by Kat George

I'm warning you now: You might want to equip yourself with tissues before reading on (although don't worry too much, they'll be happy tears). A mother and daughter were reunited after 50 years apart, and the Internet is understandably pretty psyched about it. Zella Jackson-Price was recently reunited with her daughter, Melanie Diane Gilmore. Zella and Melanie were separated when a then-20-year-old Zella gave birth in St. Louis in 1965 was allegedly told her baby had died as a result of being born prematurely. As a result, Zella never saw Melanie, and believed her to be dead, which in itself is traumatic enough of an experience. Melanie, obviously, wasn't dead, and was subsequently adopted out to another family.

Now, nearly 50 years later, Melanie's children managed to track down their grandmother using Facebook (so those of you who claim Facebook is useless should take this story into consideration before passing judgement). After messaging back and forth with Zella, the children secretly organized a DNA test with her, which was only revealed to Melanie after it came back positive (a 99.9997% match). The two first saw and spoke to each other on March 8th, 2015, when Melanie's kids organized a surprise video chat. Here's where you pull out the tissues, because Melanie is so overwhelmed with joy at meeting her mother (and her 6 siblings!) for the first time you probably will be too:

Following the video chat, the family started a GoFundMe page in order to raise money to have Melanie and Zella meet in person. The families met face-to-face for the first time last weekend, and if you thought the video chat broke you, you're going to be a mess of emotions after this:

Generally, I'm not really one for public displays of affection on YouTube, but Zella and Melanie's story is pretty special, and it's got me feeling all gooey on the inside. Here are some other adorable mother-child videos that you can continue to bawl over (I have my period so obviously all I'm doing all day is crying over sweet things on YouTube):

1. This baby who can't even talk yet but is so emotionally moved by her mum singing that she cries

2. This dog who is so overjoyed at being reunited with his human mommy that he passes out

3. Heaven and Tiane, the most adorable mother-daughter dancing duo of all time

4. Basically anything that Beyoncé and Blue Ivy do together

5. This monkey, who thinks he is a dog mommy

Image: Fox 2