Years ago my Mom was visiting my husband and me for a month around Mother’s Day. “I would love to have a photo of my Mom,” she lamented. “The only one I had was ruined when I mistakenly left it in the pocket of my uniform at the orphanage. I’ve wanted one ever since.”
Mom and her five siblings were raised in orphanages and foster homes since she was a toddler during the Depression. They soon drifted apart. And Mom had only met her mother once while she was in foster care.
Growing up, Mom told us stories about her childhood, but we never met any of her family. I always wished I knew where Mom came from and who her parents were, and the whereabouts of her siblings. I don’t know why I never thought to look for them, especially since it bothered me that I hadn’t met any of them.
“I’m going to help you find a photo of your Mom.” With pen and paper in hand, I questioned her about her siblings. I scoured the internet for their whereabouts. Sadly, three of them were deceased. When I finally located the other two, neither possessed a photo of their Mom.
I searched for two years gathering a large amount of information which included school and orphanage records, birth and marriage certificates, etc. I also located some of Mom’s cousins who provided family photos, but none of my maternal grandmother. I had exhausted all options. Discouraged, I hit my knees and prayed, asking God to help me find a photo of my grandmother. I knew He knew where I could find one!
Days later I received a phone call from one of mom’s cousins I had written to the prior week. She had been working on the family’s genealogy for years and accumulated volumes of information in addition to numerous photographs. Later that night she emailed me a beautiful photograph of my grandmother taken when she was the maid of honor at her sister’s wedding. She was sixteen years old and standing next to the bride and groom. I called Mom.
“Mom, I’m looking at a beautiful photo of your mother!” I cried. Mom was on the other end of the call crying as well. I mailed her a copy the very next day. The following month I held a family reunion and invited my newly found relatives. That Christmas I presented Mom and each of my siblings with a binder filled with photographs, documents, and stories about the relatives we never knew.
Now we no longer wonder where she came from or what happened to her family, and I have my genealogy dating back to the 1800s, including photographs of my grandparents and great-grandparents. What started out as a quest for a photo turned into so much more.
Ephesians 3:20(a) says, “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.” God certainly did that in this case.
Mary Therese Hutchinson 