Seeing her son for the first time in 55 years left a mom speechless

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TOGETHER. THIS HARDIN COUNTY HOME IS THE LAST PLACE AND A MERRY BARNETT. SAW HER SON JERRY. IT WAS MORE THAN 55 YEARS AGO. SHE WAS JUST A TEENAGER AND HE WAS FIVE YEARS OLD, BUT WHEN SHE WENT TO PICK HIM UP FROM THE BABYSITTER HER SON WAS GONE THIS HOUSE IN ELIZABETHTOWN AND THIS CRINKLED PHOTO OF HER CURLY HAIRED BABY BOY ARE TWO OF THE ONLY PHYSICAL MEMORIES AND A MERRY BARNETT HAD OF HER SON FOR OVER 50 YEARS, BUT DECADES IN THE DARK MAKE A REUNIONS LIKE THIS SPARKLE EVEN BRIGHTER. SEALED WITH A KISS’ JERRY BARNETT RETURNED TO HIS MOTHER’S ARMS AND RADCLIFFE TEARS SMILE PHONES CAPTURING EVERY SECOND. THIS FAMILY’S RELIEF IS VISIBLE. YOU SEE JERRY NEVER LEFT HOME. HE WAS TAKEN BEFORE HE WAS EVEN OLD ENOUGH TO START KINDERGARTEN. THEY TOOK HIM THEY GOT HIM IN GONE. JERRY’S AUNT MARTHA RECALLED THE PANIC WHEN HER SISTER LEARNED THE BABYSITTER REPORTEDLY LEFT HARDIN COUNTY TAKING BABY JERRY TO BUT THAT KIDNAPPER ABANDON HIM ONLY A FEW YEARS LATER THRUST IN COME INTO THE FOSTER CARE SYSTEM WITH LITTLE INFO ON HIS FAMILY. YOU PROBABL UNDERSTAND THE HYPE NOW YOU TALK ABOUT EXCITED OUR LORD JESUS SAYS GOD BROUGHT THEIR PRODIGAL SON HOME THOUGH, JERRY NEVER LEFT BY CHOICE. HE DIDN’T GET BACK. HIS OWN EITHER JERRY SON DAMON PARKER AND HIS NEWFOUND COUSIN WILL BARNETT CONNECTED TO A DNA WEBSITE. IT WAS THE SHOCK TO THEM BOTH. I SPOKE TO MY GRANDMOTHER AND IT BECAME MY MISSION TO GET THEM TWO TOGETHER. IT WAS LIKE A EMOTIONAL ROLLER COASTER BECAUSE YOU’RE SO EXCITED AND THEN YOU FEEL DRAINED BECAUSE ALL OF THIS EMOTIONS COMING TO YOU. I MEAN, IT JUST SEEMED LIKE A MOVIE THE CINEMATIC DETAILS LET PARKER TO DRIVE 10 HOURS FROM DELAWARE A CHOICE UNDOUBTEDLY APPRECIATED BY ALL AND WHAT WERE YOU THINKING WHEN THEY WALK THROUGH THE DOOR? I DON’T KNOW. IT JUST WENT BLANK, BUT I KNOW YOU WILL BUT I LOOKED AT HIM I CAN TELL YOU I KNOW

Advertisement 55 years after being kidnapped by babysitter, man reunites with mother in Hardin County Seeing her son for the first time in 55 years left a mom speechless Share Shares Copy Link Copy

A long-awaited reunion left one Hardin County mother speechless Friday, as she saw her son for the first time in 55 years.Anna-Mary Barnett became a mother as a teenager in the 1960s.When she headed to work, she typically leaned on family members to help her with child care. Then, there was a major twist that tore her and her son, Jerry Barnett, apart for decades.“I was so scared,” she told WLKY News.Barnett said that in 1965, she left Jerry with a babysitter who she didn’t know well. When she returned to pick him up, she learned that the woman had moved and taken her child.“She said they took him. They got him and (he was) gone,” said Martha Sue Barnett-Welch, Jerry’s aunt.Jerry Barnett told relatives and WLKY News that during that time, the alleged kidnapper moved him to Delaware, then abandoned him.With no details on his family and no records, the foster care system took him in, assigning him the last name Thomas and an estimated birth date.On Friday, he was back in his birth mother’s arms.She pulled out his birth certificate that she had kept safe in case he ever returned.The joyous reunion at Barnett's Radcliff mobile home included distant family members who all were visibly emotional.Their warm welcome filled the void Jerry said he’s been feeling all his life.“I was scared to get out the car. There was a mob (of people). I thought somebody was going to kidnap me again,” Jerry Barnett joked.How they reconnectedJerry Barnett told WLKY News that the traumatic ordeal of being taken from his family and thrust into the foster care system impacted his idea of family. He admitted that in previous years, he has struggled to be present for his children.The long-awaited reunion is changing that, his family said.Damon Parker, Jerry Barnett’s son, took a DNA test for an online site four years ago. Recently, he got a match with a relative in Kentucky.With the help of his newly discovered cousin Will Barnett, Parker learned of his father’s past. On Friday, Parker drove his father from Delaware to Kentucky for a jaw-dropping reunion.Anna-Mary Barnett and her family members said that they tried to ask agencies for help finding her son. “I was so scared. I mean, it was during ‘the (civil rights) movement,’” she explained.The family said that they were turned away by at least one agency. They believe the mother’s age and race led some officials to disregard their claims.For now, they are focused on catching up with Jerry Barnett.