DANVILLE, IL (Chambana Today) — A matching link, found through Ancestry.com, brought a son and his mother together for the first time in 64 years, right here in Central Illinois, Danville to be exact. Ronald Konkel, re-united with his birth mother, Judy Sanders this past Tuesday after looking for several years for answers to his past. Then, about five weeks ago, he got a response from Ancestry saying he had a match for either a cousin or a niece. His just learned about cousin Grace, had just began her subscription to Ancestry.com as a Christmas gift. They both had sent in DNA and were matched up as relation.
On Tuesday, a lifetime of waiting became an unimaginable reality when the mother and son saw each other for the very first time. “I couldn’t believe that this was real, even though I knew it was happening,” Ron said as tears began to flow and he reached for his mother Judy’s hand. “It was really like those Hallmark movies you see on TV.”
Sanders however, learned a head of time, by accident, he was coming to surprise her and while sitting in her crochet class at church, saw Ron and his wife Alison walk in, she immediately got up out of her wheelchair, nearly knocking it out of the way to get to Ron and yelled to everyone that her son was here. ” I couldn’t help it, when I saw him I got so excited and got up out of my chair,”
In the five weeks after learning about each other, they have shared phone call, video calls, and photos so Judy knew Ron as soon as he walked in the door.
Judy (Anders) was only 15 when she learned that she was expecting back in 1961. “My parent’s wouldn’t allow me to keep the baby, so I was sent to California to relatives until the baby was born,” she said. “When Ron was born, I never got to see him, but I was told he was a boy and he was healthy and that he had a birthmark (on his right arm). I signed the papers for the adoption, and that was it.”
Three years later, Judy married Ron’s father and later gave birth to a daughter who didn’t make it after birth due to severe birth defects after Judy was exposed to Agent Orange, while her husband was in the service in Panama. She later gave birth to another son eight years later, who lived to be 14 years old. Sanders said both children’s hearts were backwards and on the wrong side of their bodies.
Sanders had often thought about her first born son, Ron and wondered how and where he was and if he was still around, especially after losing her other two children.
Konkel too, had wondered about his birth mother and if she was still alive. “I am 64 and knew she had to be nearly 80, so I had no idea if I would ever find her. I don’t hold anything against her for the adoption, I know it had to be a very hard decision for her to make.”
He didn’t actively pursue finding his birth mother until the mother that raised him had passed away. “I was curious, but I didn’t want to hurt her.’ he said. he found out that he was adopted around the time Watergate was happening. “My parents took me on a vacation and told me that I was adopted. They explained it like most children are born into a family, but I was picked as a child of choice.”
About 25 years ago, he was almost in touch with his birth mother, but sadly, a mistake in identity occurred. Konkel began searching records at the hospital where he was born, he found records of five children born the same day as him. He found a contact for birth mother Judy, called, but instead reached her mother Lena, who thought he was an adopted child of another family member. ” I called and was told not to call back, at that time, I thought maybe it was time to put the past in the past.”
Konkel lived in California growing up, went into the service, became frustrated with how things were going and decided to move to Australia in 1991, where he married wife Alison, where he is a remote Area Nurse.
On the day he got to speak to his mother Judy on the phone for the first time, he was working and told co-workers he had to take some time for the phone call. “I was excited and kept telling them that my mother was calling,” he said his co-workers couldn’t fathom the idea of speaking to his mom, especially at his age. “They didn’t understand that this was my Mom and I had never spoke to her before, they didn’t understand at first.”
Since Ancestry put Konkel in contact with his cousin Grace, they began exchanging information, where he then learned his mother was still alive and very anxious to speak with him.
“All these years I haven’t had kids around or grandkids, and now I have six grandkids and 14 great-grand kids,” Sanders said. “It’s like going from little to having a whole arm on the family tree.”
Friday was her Birthday, she turned 80 years old. Konkel spent the day cooking for his mother, visiting family homes in the area as well as doing odd and ends for his mother. They finished off with a trip to Custard Cup.