- [Announcer] We'd like to thank Target
for being a proud supporter of PBS.
- This video's for my friends in North Carolina.
I miss y'all so much.
- This year has kept so many of us apart
from the people that we love.
- I have a new granddaughter,
she was born three weeks ago.
I only see her on FaceTime.
- Right now I'm missing my friend, Ethan
we went to high school together and that was my dog.
- The person I miss the most would probably be
my best friend Dan.
- We're texting every day, we're on video chats.
If anything, maybe we speak to each other too much.
(upbeat music)
- Due to the risk of Coronavirus,
air travel is down 70% in America.
- For me, even a visit to someone's home across town
feels impossible.
- My dad's been really far away from me.
He retired halfway around the planet and I really miss him.
As-salamu alaykum Babaji. How are you today?
- Well, I'm in Pakistan in a small village near Lahore.
- It's been a long time.
- At least you are calling and visiting us every week.
That is helping a lot.
- Papa's home.
- Hi! I'm home.
- When this is over I can't wait to enjoy
every single moment I have with my best friend.
- I look forward to seeing people's faces again.
- When this thing is over,
all I wanna do is hug my mom.
- For Mary Beth DeSanto,
she was hoping for a reunion decades in the making.
- The one really sad thing in my life was giving up my baby
daughter 50 years ago.
- [Danielle] For half a century,
Mary Beth has wondered what happened to the baby
she gave up for adoption.
- I was 17 and my parents took me to Our Lady of Victory,
Was a home for unwed mothers, girls that were pregnant.
I didn't want to take a chance on ruining her life.
I remember looking at her and just thinking,
what am I going to do with you?
- In 1970, teen pregnancy was even more stigmatized and the
options available were quite different.
- And in a pre-Roe v. Wade America
an unexpected pregnancy was usually legally required
to be carried to term.
- [Ali] As a result, adoptions were far more
common and in most cases,
birth parents would never know who adopted their child.
- So on March 5th,
when I got the letter and it was from Victoria,
I couldn't believe it.
- Hello, Mary Beth. My name is Victoria Rich.
This may not be the letter you'd expect to receive every
day. I truly hope this letter is not an unwelcome intrusion.
- My motivation has been to let my birth mother
know things turned out okay.
And I hope the same for her.
All I ever wanted was for her to just be okay.
- [Danielle] In early 2020 New Yorker,
Victoria Rich was able to find out who her birth mother was
after the state passed a law that allowed adoptees to gain
access to their original birth certificates.
- Being adopted I often did wonder
who my birth parents might be,
but there's the fear of not knowing
what you're gonna find out.
- As soon as I started stopped shaking, I dialed her number.
- A call was coming in from Erie, Pennsylvania.
I don't know why I was like
trying to be cool just like hello.
I'm just like, I know who this is.
There was a long pause. And she said, it's Mary Beth.
Like, Oh my God.
- [Ali] Their first conversation changed everything.
And they couldn't wait to reunite after a lifetime apart.
- She's like, you have two brothers
and they're gonna be so excited to meet you.
- I couldn't believe it.
- It really was a dream come true for me.
- [Danielle] But by the following week,
the rest of the country was
experiencing a paradigm shift, too.
- Everything got canceled because of the coronavirus.
Everyone was just kind of in lockdown.
- It's been five months,
- And we still have not met.
- To be so close to meeting and have a derail
that the last minute must've been really hard.
- Yeah I feel that we've had to
postpone my dad's first trip to
come and meet my daughter.
I don't know when it's gonna happen now.
- Oh look who is that?
Sleepy bug here. How are you?
Whenever the time comes I would like to be close to her.
- I kind of wish I could ask her in her three-year-old mind,
where does she think you live?
Part of me thinks she thinks you live in the phone. I don't-
(Anwar laughs)
- We had one Zoom meeting.
That didn't go real well it kept freezing.
And then we'd just be staring at
each other with our mouths open or something.
- I can relate.
Okay. Can you hear us now?
- Can you hear me?
- We can hear you. Can you hear me?
Okay.
- Technical difficulties aside,
Mary Beth and Victoria tried to stay in touch.
- We've been texting a lot.
We've talked a lot about everything from the beginning.
We both realized that we shared
a very similar sense of humor
- There were times that I had to put the phone down
that I was laughing so hard.
She mentioned that she always wanted a cauldron,
I think would look nice in my fireplace. I said, Oh,
I thought maybe you were Wiccan.
It sounds weird to other people, but it was funny to us.
- [Ali] With the initial peak of the pandemic in New York
over Victoria decided to make the seven hour trip to Erie,
Pennsylvania to meet her birth mother.
- Definitely feeling kind of anxious.
And I've already had too much caffeine.
Here we go.
(upbeat music)
My birthday is August 20th. I am turning 50.
The last time we saw each other was almost
exactly 50 years ago to the day.
And so I decided that that would be something good to do
for this kind of monumental birthday.
- And she said to me, nobody's getting any younger.
She's gonna be at my door in a few days.
- Making this trip during a pandemic
has been a little challenging.
I have not been away from my house.
I've not been around more than a couple of people.
It like adds this whole weird layer of planning.
Okay, here we are.
(upbeat music)
- Just worried about what she's gonna think of me in person.
- I just assume people aren't gonna like me.
And I know that I know that's weird.
You know, coz I'm a little bit nervous, it's like,
oh, we don't really know each other.
And I was like, but I do, like,
I was inside you first nine months.
In 10 minutes,
I will be meeting my birth mother.
Oh my hair is like kinda crazy looking.
(mumbles) Almost here
- After 15 years of sadness,
I'm really ready for some happiness.
(soft music)
- It's been a long time coming.
- You don't have to bend over.
- Okay, I know am really tall.
- Don't you remember that I told you that I'm really tall?
- Yes
I never thought I would have the opportunity to ever see her
again. I'm 68 and I kinda felt like time had run out.
- Can you take off your mask for a second
so I see what you look like?
- And this is naturally curly hair?
Wonder where I got it from?
(all laugh)
- [All] Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday to you.
- It's wild to see her in real life.
It's like something I've never experienced.
(all cheer)
- She's wonderful. More than I ever expected.
(Victoria laughs)
- It's a mini caldron.
The advice I would give anyone right now,
who's wavering on whether or not to reach out to someone
that they've been separated from
is I think they should do it.
- It's been a great weekend
thought I'd be sadder right now,
but I'm just so happy because, now you're in our life.
- Just do it and put some positive vibes out into the world.
- I missed you so much.
Not to sound very woo woo,
but it's all we got right now.
- Have a good trip, I'm glad you came.
- What do you look forward to doing
when we are able to see each other?
- To be very honest, I want to be much closer
to the daughter than you.
(Ali laughs)
and I miss her already.
- One day Inshallah, we'll be able to do that.
- I'm waiting for that
- [Danielle] We'd like to thank Target
for being a proud supporter of PBS
- Target's mission is to help all families
discover the joy of everyday life.
- They're committed to lending a
hand and lifting spirits.
- In response to the coronavirus.
Target continues to prioritize and invest in the health,
safety, and wellbeing of Target team members.
- From those on the frontline,
working every day in Target stores to Target team members
around the world.
- Along with the Target foundation,
Target has provided financial support
and donations to local, national and global organizations,
responding to the pandemic.
- To learn more about Target's,
support for their communities
during this time go to Target.com/community
- [Narrator] PBS American portrait is
- A platform where
- People can go to in order to share their experiences
- So join in,
- Go to PBS
- .org
- /americanportrait.
- She calls popsicles Pakistan's,
but she knows you live in Pakistan.
So either I very much confused her into thinking that you
live in some type of giant Popsicle,
or she understands that these, there,
you can be in a place called Pakistan,
or you can be eating a Pakistan too. (laughs)