Sisters reunite with long-lost mother after 40 years

last updated 5 January 2017

After years of trying to find their mother, sisters Starla Medlock, 43, and Jeannie Toomey, 42, gave up, figuring the limited information they had would never lead them to her. Then, on Dec. 30, Medlock received a Facebook message from a man named Mark Szarmach — her mother's new husband.

Szarmach tracked Medlock down on social media after discovering her married name, and he recognized a baby photo she posted — it was the same picture his wife, Lani Szarmach, has carried in her wallet for the past 42 years. When Lani and her ex-husband divorced in the mid-1970s, they were living in England; the girls' father received full custody and brought them back to the U.S., where they lost touch with their mother.

The family reunited Tuesday in Kansas City, Missouri, and Medlock told ABC News when she locked eyes with her mother for the first time in decades, "It felt like time stood still. It just stopped." The meeting also had a major impact on her sister. "I felt like that piece in my heart was just filling up," Toomey said. "It was no longer a void there." As for Lani, who is from Thailand, she wants to make up for lost time in the kitchen, telling ABC News, "I've waited so long to cook for them." Catherine Garcia

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Explore More

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Subscribe to The Week

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox