Halfsisters make contact after 36 years

It was a promise to her terminally ill father that changed Debbie Campbell?s life forever, bringing a long-lost sibling that she had never seen into her life after 36 years.

Debbie knew she had a much younger halfsister who had been given up for adoption, but she had no idea where she was or how to go about finding her.

?My father, Malcolm Moore, died in 2003 in April,? Debbie said. ?Maybe three months before he passed away he asked me to look into it. I told him I didn?t have anything to go by, what her name was or anything.?

But, unexpectedly, another death in the family provided further information for Debbie, very important information for her quest to find her lost sister.

?My grandmother died in May, the following month,? Debbie said. ?Her name was Martha Moore. And when she passed away, they found the birth records in her personal things.?

Her father, Malcolm, and his second wife, the child?s birth mother, Tressie McInnis Moore, had gotten a divorce, and both were in poor health. Malcolm was, in fact, disabled, and neither felt they could adequately care for the child, so they decided to make her a ward of the state.

Debbie eventually learned her sister was subsequently adopted by a family in Hamilton County when she was a 1-year-old child. The family name was Jenkins, Debbie found out recently, but she currently doesn?t have any other information about the adoptive family.

At the time, Debbie and her other siblings were living with her grandmother and father in Viola. The baby, whose name was originally Ellen Ruth McInnis, was in foster care for a year or so Debbie thinks, and was adopted in 1971. At that point she became Julie Jenkins, unknown to Debbie and her family of course.

After Debbie got the information found in her grandmother?s personal items, she began to search in earnest, with the support of her husband, Michael, and their three grown children, Michael Jr., Meliah and married daughter Helen West. Debbie says a family friend, Ann Bass, has also been very supportive during this whole process.

?I went to children?s services in McMinnville,? Debbie said, ?and then they connected me to Nashville and the adoption agency. Then I had to go through all the red tape, prove who I was, show my records and everything.?

Then it was a waiting game. The adoption agency contacted her sister first, to determine if she wanted to meet a family she never knew existed, and then got back with Debbie.

?They said she wanted to have contact,? Debbie said. ?Then I got a letter from her, through the state, and then I called her number.?

That first call was a revelation for both women.

?We were both crying before it was over,? Debbie said. ?We couldn?t believe it. She couldn?t believe it. It had been 36 years this year, and we had never had contact.?

Julie is now married to Timothy Lynsky and the couple lives in Chattanooga. Timothy and Julie have one child, a 2-year-old boy named Matthew. In the letter she sent, Julie included a number of photos from different periods of her life, which Debbie cherishes.

Debbie recalls that first phone conversation vividly.

?When I called her husband answered,? Debbie said, ?and I told him I was her birth sister. Then he put her on the phone and we just started talking. Then she started crying. She said she was just amazed and was thankful I didn?t give up on it.?

Julie now knows she has four other siblings, a brother, Dan McInnis, by her mother Tressie, along with Debbie and her brother and sister, Johnny Moore and Evelyn Bruce, none of whom Julie knew existed.

As it turned out, Debbie just happened to get in touch with Julie right before her family was scheduled to go on vacation, but Debbie says the family plans to have a meeting soon.

?We?re going to meet after her vacation,? Debbie said. ?She wants to see everybody.?

Debbie says it means a lot to her to have fulfilled one of her father?s last wishes, and discover a long-lost sibling in the process.

?It?s a relief,? Debbie said, ?and there?s a sense of peace now because I?ve done what my daddy requested. I wish I could have done it before he passed away, but I didn?t have all this information to go by. But I?m glad I was able to do it. I?m at peace now, and I have my baby sister. It?s amazing, it?s wonderful.?