From growing up watching her mom on television on her favourite show to actually discovering the amazing truth, at 54, Lisa Wright’s reunion story with her birth mom is truly what fairy-tales are made of.
After 50 whole years of losing contact with each other, many thanks to being urged by her son to take a genetic test, Wright at last found her biological mother.
Speaking in an interview with TODAY’s Sheinelle Jones, Wright disclosed that although she grew up knowing she was adopted, she never bothered searching for her biological mother who gave birth to her at 18 years old.
Way back during the adoption process, records were sealed, and identities of her adoptive family and her birth parents were not disclosed. After being urged to take DNA test by her son, the results disclosed the identity of an uncle.
She reached out to her uncle to ask if he was open to chatting, days after, Wright and her uncle spoke on the phone, during the conversation with her uncle, Wright mentioned details about herself saying: ”I was born on December 10, 1964. I was told that my biological mom was very young when she had me. She moved to Los Angeles because she wanted to be in Hollywood. And then he just stopped me right there.
“So then I’m thinking, OK, here it comes. He’s going to say don’t ever call me again. And so he goes, ”Lisa, you’re my niece. We’ve been looking for you. We’ve all been looking for you.”
Wright discovered that her birth mother lived in Los Angeles, the same city where Wright herself lived and after searching for her mother’s name online, she stumbled upon a photo of her. During this period, her phone rang again and a voice on the other end said: ”Is this my daughter? And then I just went, Oh, my God, is this my mother?”
She recalled her mother saying: “Yes, sweetie, this is your mom.”
Wright and her mother, actress Lynne Moody eager to see each other decided to meet the very next day and that was when she discovered that her mother, Moody starred in one of her favourite TV shows from childhood, That’s My Mama, a sitcom that ran on ABC in the mid-1970s.
“I grew up watching my mother on TV and didn’t even know it,” Wright said. That’s My Mama was our must-see TV, and who knew? No idea … And that’s my mama!”
So sweet!