读者文摘:科技让他们重聚(3)（在线收听）

This is my daughter. When she was 16, Joanne Loewenstern learned that she was adopted.

这是我女儿。乔安妮·洛文斯顿16岁时得知自己是被收养的。

Until that day, she'd believed that her adoptive parents were her birth parents.

那天之前，她都认为自己的养父母是自己的生父母。

Instead, they told her that her birth mother was a woman named Lillian Feinsilver

相反，他们告诉乔安妮，她的生母是一位名叫莉莲·费西尔弗的女性。

and that she had died days after giving birth to her at Bellevue Hospital in New York City.

在乔安妮出生几天后，莉莲就在纽约贝尔维尤医院去世。

Feeling betrayed and confused, Joanne spent many nights crying, wondering what her birth mother had been like.

乔安妮感觉被背叛了，困惑的她哭了很多个晚上，想知道她的生母是什么样的人。

And yet, some part of her believed her mother was still alive. The doubts nagged Joanne for years.

然而，她的一部分相信她的母亲还活着。这些疑问困扰了乔安妮多年。

After watching this emotional turmoil, Shelley Loewenstern, Joanne's daughter-in-law, suggested taking a DNA test.

乔安妮的儿媳雪莉·洛文斯顿看到了她的情感困扰，她建议乔安妮去做一个DNA测试。

That was in 2017, and Joanne was already 79 years old.

那是在2017年，乔安妮已经79岁了。

Even if her mother had passed years before, Shelley reasoned, learning something about her biological family might give Joanne some peace.

雪莉认为，即使她的母亲已于多年前去世，了解一下她的血缘关系能给乔安妮带来平静。

So Joanne took the test, and about a year later Shelley received a message on ancestry.com from a man named Sam Ciminieri, whose genetic report had matched him with Joanne.

所以乔安妮去做了测验，约一年后，雪莉在ancestry.com上收到了一条来自山姆·西米涅里的信息，他的基因报告与乔安妮相符。

Shelley immediately wrote back to Sam, asking whether he knew a Lillian Feinsilver.

雪莱立即给山姆回信，问他是否认识一个叫莉莲·费西尔弗的人。

Yes, Sam said, that was his mother's name. Almost unbelievably, she was alive, at age 100—Joanne had been right all along.

是的，萨姆说，那是他母亲的名字。令人难以置信的是，她还活着，时年100岁——乔安妮一直都是对的。

But there were more shocks to come. Sam said that Lillian lived in an assisted-living facility in Port St. Lucie, Florida.

但是让人震惊的事还有更多。山姆说莉莲住在佛罗里达州圣露西港的一家养老机构里。

Joanne lived in Boca Raton, less than 80 miles down the interstate.

乔安妮住在博卡拉顿，沿着州际公路不到80英里。

"As it turns out," Joanne's son, Elliot Loewenstern, told the Washington Post, "we have a whole other family we never would have discovered."

乔安妮的儿子埃利奥特·洛文斯顿告诉《华盛顿邮报》，“结果是，我们还有一个我们永远不会发现的完整的家庭。”

The families quickly planned a reunion at the facility where Lillian lived.

这家人很快计划在莉莲住的地方团聚。

A month later, Joanne found herself sitting across from the mother she had searched for her whole life.

一个月后，乔安妮就坐在她一辈子都在寻找的母亲的对面。

Elliot, Sam, Shelley, and one of Joanne's grandsons looked on. Lillian, who suffers from dementia and uses a wheelchair, was silent.

艾略特、萨姆、谢莉和乔安妮的一个孙子在她们旁边。莉莲患有痴呆症，需要坐轮椅，她默不作声。

"I don't know if she recognizes me," Joanne said. She told Lillian that she had been adopted in 1938 and that she'd been told her birth mother had passed away.

乔安妮说，“我不知道她是否认得出我。”她告诉莉莲，她是在1938年被收养的，她被告知自己的生母已经去世了。

No response. Joanne started to cry. At that point her mother perked up, as if she had started to understand.

没有回应。乔安妮哭了起来。这时她母亲精神一振，好像她已经开始明白了。

Joanne excitedly began telling Lillian all about her children and grandchildren. Lillian smiled.

乔安妮开始激动地告诉莉莲所有关于她的儿孙的事情。莉莲笑了。

Then she said the words Joanne had waited more than 60 years to hear: "This is my daughter."

然后她说了乔安妮等了60多年才听到的话：“这是我的女儿。”

The Loewensterns learned that over the years, Lillian had repeatedly told her family that she "lost her daughter."

洛文斯顿一家人才知道，这些年来，莉莲不断地告诉她的家人“她女儿丢了”。

Everyone, including Lillian, assumed that the baby had died.

每个人，包括莉莲，都以为孩子已经死了。

Joanne's family speculates that because Lillian was unmarried when she gave birth, the baby was taken away and put up for adoption.

乔安妮的家人推测，因为莉莲生孩子的时候还没有结婚，所以孩子被带走了，让别人收养。

But now that the two women had been unexpectedly reunited, none of that mattered so much anymore.

但是现在这对母女出人意料地团聚了，那些事都不重要了。

They spent time that first afternoon together coloring with colored pencils, which just happens to be a favorite hobby for both of them.

他们那天下午在一块用彩铅作画，这碰巧是两个人最喜欢的爱好。

When Joanne visited again three days later, Lillian remembered quickly who she was.

乔安妮三天后再次拜访莉莲的时候，她很快就记起乔安妮是谁了。

Now they see each other every few weeks to color, play games, and enjoy the time they have together.

现在他们每隔几周就会见面，一起涂色，玩游戏，享受在一起的时光。

"I'm proud," Joanne told WPTV. "This is something I wanted to do all my life."

乔安妮告诉西棕榈滩电视台，“我很自豪，这就是我一生都想做的事情。”