It's not the way a Mesa mother and daughter plan to meet every time -- in a terminal at Sky Harbor. But this time is special. They haven't seen each other in 43 years.
Robin Adair Passey was just 14 years old when she got pregnant.
"Back in the day, in those days girls went away, had babies and then came back and lived their life," Passey said.
She decided it was best for her little girl to give her up for adoption. "I got to unwrap her and count all of her fingers and toes and then that was it," said Passey. "I never saw her again. It was kind of like a death."
Passey went decades searching but not knowing anything about her daughter's new life. She didn't even know her name. Becky Skousen was alive and well but decided not to look for her birth mother.
"I didn't want to step into her life and upset everything," said Skousen.
But Passey was desperate to find her daughter. After decades of searching, Passey decided to use MyHeritageDNA, a company that uses DNA to trace a family tree. Just by chance, so did Skousen. They both got an email saying they had a 49.1-percent match to be mother and daughter.
The two were able to meet in Mesa for the first time since that day in the hospital. The mother and daughter united -- their hearts no longer empty.
"Mine has been filled," Passey said. "So I'm good. I'm good."
