Mother reunites with daughter after 15 years Published May 7, 2004 By Senior Airman Julie Weckerlein 31st Fighter Wing Public Affairs AVIANO AIR BASE, Italy (AFPN) -- It was a mother’s nightmare. Juanita Heismann’s daughter, April Turner, was gone without a trace. It was June 1988. Mrs. Heismann, estranged from April’s father, dropped off the first-grader for a scheduled visit with him in Lawton, Okla. When it came time for April to return a few days later, neither she nor her father arrived at the designated time.“At first, I panicked,” Mrs. Heismann said. “I was angry and afraid. I tried to look for them using every means I could, but they were gone as if they just disappeared.” Mrs. Heismann later learned that the father and daughter moved, but she had no idea where. The young mother, who had two other children, quickly realized she could not handle the ordeal alone, and that she had to move on. “I went through a wide scale of emotions,” she said. “I cried. I ranted and raved. There was nothing I could do, and I felt so hopeless. But then, after a lot of praying, I made peace with God. I didn’t worry, because I realized I would see her again someday; whether it was in heaven or here on Earth. I knew we would be reunited.” Mrs. Heismann did move on with her life, marrying Tech. Sgt. Richard Heismann, who is assigned to the 603rd Air Control Squadron here, and adding three more children to her family. But there was always a feeling of something missing. “I did the best I could trying to return my life to normal,” she said. “But there were those days that were so hard, especially birthdays and the holidays. I always wondered about her. Was she safe? Was she happy?” In June 2003, Mrs. Heismann got her answer. “I had just returned from Bible study where … I had just told the others about my ordeal with my firstborn daughter, and how God guided me through it,” she said. “When I got home, I checked my e-mail.”Buried among spam and junk messages was a name eerily familiar: April Turner. Mrs. Heismann said she initially disregarded the e-mail, but could not get past the name. “I saw it was my daughter’s name, but April and Turner are common names, and the e-mail address looked like those seen on junk mail,” Mrs. Heismann said. She decided to open it anyway. Once she read the first few lines, Mrs. Heismann said she screamed. It was her long-lost daughter. “I scared my husband,” Mrs. Heismann said. “By the time he ran to me, I was incoherent -- a sobbing, crying mess. I (ran) to my friend’s house across the street. I had to tell somebody, anybody.” She quickly dialed her relatives in the United States, but “nobody had the decency to be home,” she said. Finally, though, she managed to collect herself and respond to the e-mail. Thus began an e-mail and telephone correspondence between mother and daughter. Ms. Turner had her own story of loss and longing. “I always wanted to find my mother,” said Ms. Turner, who is a 22-year-old serving with the U.S. Army in Washington, D.C. “Growing up, your means of research are limited, and there is only so much you can do. So many times I tried, but turning up with nothing is so discouraging.” Ms. Turner said it was the unanswered questions that drove her to continue searching for her mother. “I really wanted to know the other person who made me,” she said. “I had questions I wanted her to answer, not my father or any other relative. And now that I’m a young woman who will one day start a family of my own, I had health concerns. I used to only give a doctor half the answers when asked about family history.” Using an online company, Ms. Turner got a list of names matching criteria she provided. “The very next day, an investigator had one name, and it was (my mom); he found her,” Ms. Turner said. She said she nervously dialed all the phone numbers provided, but they were dead ends. Not defeated, though, she took the last known name of her mother and typed it into a search engine. The high-school reunion Web site for Lawton, Okla., popped up with Mrs. Heismann’s e-mail address. Ms. Turner said she was in shock and disbelief when she saw that her mother responded to her e-mail. “I thought I would never find her,” she said. Plans were made for Ms. Turner to fly to Italy for a 10-day visit. Mrs. Heismann said she was on pins and needles waiting for the reunion. “I was afraid I wouldn’t recognize her,” Mrs. Heismann said. “She had sent a picture, but I just had this fear I wouldn’t know who she was.”Fortunately, mother’s intuition proved to be as strong as ever. “She didn’t even let me get out of the terminal before she almost knocked me down,” Ms. Turner said. “She just grabbed me and hugged me. She didn’t have to think about whether or not it was me. She knew.” The two realized they had a lot in common, from favorite colors to favorite Disney characters. “When I was around my mom, I thought I was watching myself in a lot of ways,” Ms. Turner said. “We are so much alike, and we have a lot in common with likes and dislikes. It just goes to show you don’t have to be around your parents to turn out like them.” They did the mother-daughter things they missed: fixing hair, talking, cleaning, visiting Venice and getting portraits made. The days passed quickly. “I hated to see her go,” Mrs. Heismann said. “I bawled the whole way to the airport. But I love having her in my life again. Her siblings adore her. She’s a part of the family now.” Ms. Turner, too, said she was touched by the experience. “There’s a bond that not even 15 years of distance will break,” she said. Mrs. Heismann said she is proud of the young woman her daughter has grown to be. “She’s much more confident in herself than I was at her age, and she’s got a wonderful career ahead of her,” she said. “I look forward to being the mother she deserves.” It is a mother’s dream come true.