Mother, Son Reunite After 36 Years

(Nov. 23) -- A mother and son who had been searching for each other for 36 years were finally reunited this month in Chicago.

David Martinez Johnson, who was 5 when his parents divorced, spent time with both parents until one day his father's family moved him to Georgia, the Chicago Tribune reported. He was told his mother's Mexican-American family couldn't accept David, whose father is African-American.

But that wasn't true.

Frances Martinez spent years searching for her son, even altering his birth certificate while he was still a minor in hopes her ex-husband would be alerted and try to contact her. David Johnson, 41 and a paralegal, took Martinez as his middle name when he turned 18. "I had nothing else of hers," he told the Tribune.

Their lucky break came when Martinez, 62, recently went to get a new Social Security card. After hearing her story, a worker allowed her to use a Social Security Administration computer to find her son. The worker couldn't give Martinez her son's address but agreed to mail a letter Martinez wrote to Johnson. He received it Nov. 12.

The two spoke by phone and arranged to meet. Johnson and his girlfriend drove from Peachtree City, Ga., arriving at his mother's house at 2 a.m. "I couldn't get over how much I looked like her," he said.

"Everybody in my family knew how long I had waited," Martinez said. "Holding my son in my arms, I couldn't have felt more grateful."

To read more, go to the Chicago Tribune.


Mother and Son Reunited After Searching for Each Other for 36 Years