California woman to reunite with son 52 years later
An Elk Grove woman is preparing to reunite with the child she gave up for adoption in 1962.
Vivian Camp will be flying to Hartford, Conn. in March to meet her long-lost son on his 52nd birthday.
Camp found her son with the help of Catholic Services, the agency that arranged the adoption in Pennsylvania.
By January, four months after beginning to search, Camp said she was speaking with her son, Ray, 51, by telephone regularly.
Camp said Ray's first words were, "Are you my mom?"
And Camp shared another exchange from that day: "He said, 'What are we going to call each other?' I said, 'Well, you go by your middle name, so I'm going to call you Ray.' There was a pause and he said, 'I need to call you Mom.' I said, 'Oh, that works for me!'"
Now, she said they speak every day by telephone.
Camp told KCRA 3 that she became pregnant at 18 and was sent away by her family to a Catholic home for unwed mothers. She said adoption was expected.
"There was no discussion," Camp said. "No counseling before or after."
Camp said the child was immediately removed after birth, and she was not allowed to hold the infant.
Camp was happily married three years later and had a family. She raised two sons and is enjoying a good life since moving to California.
Camp said she blocked out the memory of the lost child until last October.
"I have no idea why I got up one morning, sat down at the computer and went to the Catholic Charities website," Camp said.
The application to search on the Catholic Charities' website included a question about why the parent is seeking information.
Camp said her answer was, "There has been a hole in my heart for over 50 years and I realize that I am getting desperate."
Now, Camp said the hole is filling in.
