News — Mother Daughter

A mother and her long-lost daughter reunited after five decades in the most unusual way. Lisa Wright was good with going to her grave not knowing who her real mother was until her son’s curiosity to reveal her genetic makeup led her straight into the arms of her real mother.

Wright, who is now 54, said she grew up knowing her real mother gave birth to her when she was 18. Her adoption was a closed one, so her adoptive parents and biological mother never met.

“My (adoptive) mom told me, ‘Your mommy loved you, but she was really young, and she knew she couldn’t take care of you. I wanted the baby so bad, and that’s why your mom let me take care of you. You weren’t abandoned. This was just the best thing for you,'” Wright told Today in an exclusive.

Her son was curious about her genetic heritage and suggested she does a DNA test. Wright was not hesitant, and the results launched an avalanche of surprises that changed her life forever. “I get an alert, and it says, ‘This person is your uncle,'” Wright said. “So, I just reached out and said, ‘If you’re open to it, I would love to chat with you to see what all of this means.'”

She connected with her uncle immediately, who realized from the get-go when Wright revealed her birth date and the circumstances surrounding her adoption that she was the daughter of his sister who gave her up to pursue a career in Hollywood.

A few days later, Wright got the call she had been waiting for. After 50 years, she was finally speaking with her mother, actor Lynne Moody, who had given up all hope of ever reconnecting with her child. Interestingly, Moody never had another child after her.  

“When she was born, they covered my face, my eyes, so that I couldn’t see her,” Moody said. “But I could hear her cry. All I could say was ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, baby, I’m sorry.’ As a mother, you never, ever, ever forget. During those 50 years, all I did was try to learn how to live with it. I didn’t know if she was hungry if she was alive if she was happy if she was adopted.”

Moody also turned out to be a character from Wright’s favorite sitcom from the mid-’70s. She starred in an ABC series ironically called “That’s My Mama.”

“I grew up watching my mother on TV and didn’t even know it,” Wright said. “‘That’s My Mama’ — that was our must-see TV. We all sat down and watched ‘That’s My Mama’ every week, and who knew? No idea. … And that’s my mama!”

Since then, Wright’s son has met his grandmother. Wright has also met her four sisters from her biological father’s side as well as more relatives from Moody’s family. Sadly, Wright’s adoptive parents did not get to witness this reunion because they had passed away.

Moody’s take home for everyone is that we “keep the faith” because “life is full of surprises sometimes.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated many problems and longstanding issues around the country. One of those problems is access to healthy food. According to the Food Bank of Southeastern Virginia and the Eastern Shore, there is only one supermarket within a two-mile radius for 1,700 families living in low-income neighborhoods. As a solution, one mother-daughter duo took initiative and created a grocery store to serve the community.

Renee Trueheart and her daughter, Tyra Gallagher, decided to help out their community in Henrico County in Richmond, Virginia, by opening the Darrell’s Family Supermarket earlier this month. After other food options for locals closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, Gallagher, who works with patients on dialysis, has received much praise around how this kind of store is needed in the community.

“A lot of my patients struggle with being able to get the proper food they need,” said Gallagher in an interview with WRIC. “We’ve seen the disparities that Black and brown people face looking for clean, safe, and fresh produce in this area. That’s why we’re here.”

Gallagher says she is grateful for the community support she and her mother received throughout the difficulties of opening a business during a pandemic.

“We are shocked at all of the positive feedback we have received, praising us for what we are doing,” she said of the neighborhood response to VPM News. “We’ve even had people say they will drive all the way from Northern Virginia just to support.”