Couple Reunites Through Daughter

Separated for More Than 35 Years, Couple Reunites Through Daughter
High School Sweethearts Reconnect Through Their Adopted Daughter
By JEN PEREIRA
Oct. 17, 2008 —
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Parenting/story?id=6052809

When Ann Lansing set out to find her biological mother, she had no
idea her quest would end in reuniting two long-lost lovers.

Nearly four decades ago at a New Year's Eve party in 1967, 17-year-
old Eileen Campbell first laid eyes on 19-year-old Jack Crowley.

"He was just the cutest guy ever," Campbell told "Good Morning
America."

"He just had these twinkling eyes that did it. I was done."

Crowley felt the same way.

"We just hit it off," he said. "We were very comfortable with each
other. I was taken."

The two fell in love, but several months into their relationship,
Campbell became pregnant. The couple started making plans to marry,
but her mother said she would not allow it.

"She said it would bring humiliation on the family," Campbell
recalled. "And she said if I really loved the child, I would give her
up for adoption."

After giving birth to a baby girl, Campbell placed her for adoption
and, forced to separate from each other, the young couple moved on to
new lives. Each had other children, but the pain of the past
lingered.

"I have never forgotten," she said. "It was always there. I thought
about both of them every day."

But then, in 2003, the child she gave up came looking for her -- Ann
Lansing found her mother.

"I was married and thinking of having children," Lansing told "Good
Morning America."

"I thought 'wouldn't it be a good time to search for my parents?' And
with the advent of the Internet, it was amazingly easy."

Within a day of finding each other, Lansing and Campbell started
talking.

"You do want to know why you were given up," Lansing told "Good
Morning America."

"You do want to know why things didn't work out with your biological
family, and hearing it from her, it was a sense of completion."

Soon after, mother and daughter decided to try and track down
Campbell's long-lost love.

When they did, the fire of love that had been smoldering for years
was reignited and the widowed Crowley and the divorced Campbell fell
in love all over again. They were married this past July where their
daughter performed the ceremony.

"After the ceremony and after the kiss, I looked at her and I
said, 'We're married. We did it, baby,'" Crowley said.

Campbell said, "My life has come full circle. This is the life I was
supposed to lead. In some ways, there's some sadness to that, but
there's joy, obviously."

The miracle is not lost on Lansing.

"What was meant to be is, maybe a few years later," she said. "But
what was meant to be has become real."


Copyright © 2008 ABC News Internet Ventures