Woman Looking for Mother Finds She Is Her Co-Worker

Tammy Harris had spent nearly a year looking for her biological mother. Joyce Schultz had been trying to find her daughter for nearly 20 years.

They lived two blocks from each other and had worked together at a convenience store for six months before Schultz’s eavesdropping led to the startling discovery that they were mother and daughter.

“It was just right under my nose all of this time,” Harris said Tuesday as she sat on the living room couch with her mother.

At their feet, Harris’ 17-month-old daughter, Maria, played with the baby pictures of her mother that helped bring about the reunion.

When Harris was 2, the state took her and two brothers from their mother and they were adopted by different families.

Schultz, 44, said the children were taken because she had a drinking problem. She said she stopped drinking a few years ago, remarried and started working at the convenience store.

Harris began searching for her parents on the day after her 21st birthday. She said she waited until she felt she was old enough to cope with whatever she might find out.

Last month, Harris was talking with a co-worker who asked if she was having any luck. Schultz said: “I overheard them and, being nosy, I asked, ‘Luck about what?’ ”

Harris produced her birth certificate. Schultz knew immediately that Harris was her daughter, but was afraid to say so, fearing she might be mistaken.

“I said: ‘I might know somebody who can help,’ ” Schultz said.

She asked Harris for a baby picture and took it home to compare it with photos of her daughter. “And when I did, boy, was I shocked. I said: ‘Oh my God, that is Tammy!’ ”

Schultz said she was afraid her daughter wouldn’t like her and kept quiet for three days.

It was store manager Ron Lynch who brought them together in his office on Feb. 22 after Schultz told him the story.

Harris walked in, saw Schultz with the two pictures and asked: “Are you my mother?”

“When she said ‘yes,’ I just fell into her arms. It felt so natural. We held on for the longest time. It was the best day of my life.”