AFTER 82 years of wondering what happened to her daughter after she was taken away by the state of New York, a mother has been reunited with her first-born child.

    Lena Pierce, 96, was 14 years old when she gave birth to Eva May at a hospital in Utica, caring for her for six months before the state took her away, citing she was unfit for motherhood at her age.

    Eva May was eventually adopted, her name was changed to Betty Morrell and she grew up in Long Island as an only child, WBNG reported.

    After her adoptive parents passed away when she was 21, Morrell went on a 50-year-long search to find her birth mother, who she embraced during an emotional reunion in New York last month.

    “I’m not alone anymore,” Morrell, 82, of Florida said following the Jan. 15 reunion in the lobby of Greater Binghamton Airport.

    “I have my mother and I have sisters and brothers. It’s surreal, but so wonderful, to be together again after all this time.”

    Pierce, a great-grandmother, said she often thought about and worried about her first-born after she was taken away in 1933.

    From that time, Pierce remained in Twin Tiers, was married twice and became the mother to seven children.

    “She was growing up and I was growing old,” Pierce, who now lives in an assisted-living home in Hallstead, Pennsylvania, told WBNG of the pair’s time apart.

    Meanwhile, after Morrell’s adoptive parents passed away in 1994, she began searching for her birth mother, which ended up lasting 50 years.

    She said an aunt one day “slipped” and told her that her name was Eva and that she was born in Utica — clues that aided her in her search.

    However, she faced obstacles due to her adoption being closed but after a few calls to the two hospitals in Utica, she narrowed down her search and found her birth certificate.

    The hospital sent her the birth certificate and with the help of a granddaughter, she discovered more clues on the site ancestry.com before finding Millie Hawk, one of Pierce’s daughters.

    “There was no connection. Nothing to tie me to anybody,” Morrell said.

    “And so, ya know, when it came through and she was alive, and I had been talking to her on the phone … it was like, it’s all gone. My life is complete at this point.”

    Following the reunion, the pair spent the following day with friends and family.

    Now that they have been reconnected, the mother and daughter plan to continue their relationship.

    (SD-Agencies)