Sometimes, no matter how many obstacles that stand in the way, love that is meant to be will be.
At least that was the case for Indiana high school sweethearts Joe Cougill, a freshman, and Donna Horn, a sophomore.
The two were torn apart by their parents. Forbidden to see each other ever again after Joe, a star athlete, got his love Donna, a cheerleader, pregnant.
โJoe will do whatever you want him to,โ is what Joeโs dad said to Donnaโs dad in 1968, according to Joe. โIf you want Joe to marry Donna, he will marry Donna. If you want Joe to keep this secret, Joe will keep it secret. If you want Donna to have the baby, Joe will support her. If you donโt want him to be part of her life, Joe wonโt.โ
The decision was made that both teens would have to swear to never call each other again.
And they didnโt for five decades until their daughter, which had been given up for adoption, brought them back together.
It didnโt take long for them to fall in love all over again and married after that.
Laura Mabry of Springdale, Arkansas, who was adopted by Wayne and Darline Montgomery in 1968, set out to find her biological parents at age 52 by taking a 23andMe DNA test.
She ended up finding Donna first who lead her to her biological father.
โWe started communicating by text and email,โ Laura told ABC News. โShe said, โAre you interested in knowing who your father is?โ I was like โOf course I am!'โ
Laura somehow got a hold of Joeโs cell phone number and sent him a text.
โOh gosh, if you look anything like Donna I bet youโre so pretty,โ was one of the first things he said.
At this point, he had no idea if Donna even had the baby, if she kept it, if it was a boy or girl, or if the baby was put up for adoption.
โI canโt tell you over the years how many times I had wondered,โ Joe told Indy Star.
He also thought a lot about Donna over those year, every time he would mow a particular area of grass on his lawn.
โWe were first loves,โ Joe said. โShe was all I wanted, and I was all she wanted.โ
Donna ended up moving away after the pregnancy and was devastated after losing Joe.
She had her baby on Joeโs birthday another jabbing reminder that they were no longer together.
She also saw Joeโs mother, who worked at the hospital, that day.
Donna and her mother agreed that she wouldnโt hold the baby after it was born but there was a mistake and a nurse placed the baby in her arms.
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โThat has haunted me,โ Donna said.
Donna ended up marrying twice, with her second husband dying from cancer in 2011.
She is a breast cancer survivor with three children. Joe had been married and divorced twice and had two children. It was Laura who played matchmaker for her both single biological parents.
โI gave him her phone number, and they started to talk immediately, and they just immediately bonded because, you know, he was divorced and her husband had passed away,โ Mabry told ABC News. โSo they were both single. And they immediately started talking, and I mean that was just that.โ
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The couple has been talking ever since and married in May.
โWe saw each other and we hugged each other and we cried,โ Joe said. โWe knew. We knew. You know what I mean?โ
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Not only was Laura overjoyed to find a family that shares her physical features but to also learn that she was born out of love.
โI think thatโs been a key part of just knowing my history, [their story] has been so important in my life,โ she said. โThat helped complete my whole identity, which has been great.โ
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