Simi Valley Man’s Long Search Ends : Reunion: He will soon embrace his mother and two sisters for the first time since his adoption at age 4.

Simi Valley resident Tom Richardson, adopted when he was 4, had been searching for his biological mother for years when he finally came up with a name and an address.

But Richardson, 28, could not bring himself to make contact, and three years passed. Then last month, he wrote a letter to the address in Battle Creek, Mich., which turned out to be his grandfather’s house.

A few days later, he was on the phone with his mother, Pearl Fox.

“There were a lot of tears before any words came out,” Richardson said. “Then she said, ‘My baby’s finally home.’ ”

Richardson said he will be leaving today for a family reunion in Battle Creek with his mother and two sisters who, until a year ago, also had been separated from their mother.

“It’s incredible,” Richardson said. “This has been my year. I found my wife--I just got married six weeks ago--and now I’ve found my mom.”

Fox, 46, said in a phone interview Friday that she has long dreamed of the day when she would be reunited with her son, who also happens to be her firstborn.

“After 20 years, I had given up a lot of hope,” said Fox, her voice trembling with emotion. “I thought it would just have to be a miracle, and that is what happened.”

Fox said she was reunited with her daughters, Bonnie Brown, 24, and Ann Johnson, 27, last July. She said Brown was able to track her down after an exhaustive seven-year search. A few months later, the two were able to locate Johnson, who, like Brown, lives in Michigan.

“Now we’re all back together,” Fox said. “It’s a dream I’ve wanted all these years, and it’s finally coming true.”

Fox, divorced from the children’s father, said she was forced to give up her son and two daughters because of chronic health problems related to her diabetic condition. She said her family was unable to offer help, and she asked the state to take temporary custody of her children until she got better.

“It took too long for me to get better, and they finally took permanent custody,” she said. The children were later adopted by different families.

Fox, who later had another son and daughter from a second marriage, said she had long searched for her first three children.

“I finally just gave up,” said Fox, who divorced a second time and remains single.

Richardson said he had known of his birth in Battle Creek on May 7, 1963, from his birth certificate. But that was all he knew.

He said that three years ago he put in a request to the Battle Creek Library for back issues of the local newspaper kept on microfilm. In one edition of the newspaper, he found an announcement that a boy had been born to a Mr. and Mrs. Royce L. Knoll on May 7, 1963. The baby’s name was Wendell Knoll.

Richardson said he did more checking with the town’s only hospital at the time and discovered that Wendell Knoll was the only boy born on that date in Battle Creek.

Although the birth announcement in the newspaper listed an address for the Knolls, Richardson said he could not believe anyone from his family would still be living there and did not pursue the matter.

“I just thought, ‘God, it’s just an address,’ ” he said. “So I put it on the back shelf.”

Then, last month--after he and his wife, Lorie, were married--he decided to check out the address he had discovered. He said he wrote a letter to the resident of the address explaining who he was and asking for help in his search. That resident turned out to be his mother’s father.

A few days later he was talking with his mother. Since then the two have talked several times on the phone. Richardson said he also has been conversing regularly with his newfound sisters.

Brown said her older brother sounds like a “loving, very sincere and respectable man . . . and I can’t wait to plant my arms around him.”

Brown said she had been close to finding her brother when he finally made contact with their mother.

“We’ve got our whole family back together, now,” she said, crying. “ ‘Thank God,’ is all I can say.”

Fox said she told her son that she still has a firetruck he used to play with, his favorite blanket and some baby pictures.

“I never tried to hide” the fact that she had three other children, Fox said. She said she frequently talked about them to her two children from her second marriage, Keshia, 20, and Kenneth, 19.

But while she had kept pictures of her first three children, she said she found it too painful to display them.

“Now my pictures are back on the wall, my windows are open and I’m full of life,” she said.