A 41-year-old woman from Arkansas received an emotional surprise amid her breast cancer treatment — a reunion she had been waiting her whole life for.
Ashley Pruitt met her biological mother this week after decades of searching, a moment captured by CBS affiliate KTHV. “I didn’t have nobody, but I will today,” she said before meeting her mom for the first time. “After today, I got somebody.”
Born in the 1980s, Pruitt was adopted at birth through a closed adoption. From her teenage years, she would secretly try to uncover details about her biological parents. “I knew my mom was 24 when she had me. I knew she was 125 pounds,” she recalled. “I knew just bits and pieces.”
After years of wondering, her life took a turn in August when she was diagnosed with breast cancer and began chemotherapy. “I got on my knees, just me in that room with God,” Pruitt said. “I was desperate at that time.”
During her hospital stay, she had a sobering thought: “I don’t even know if I have enough people to carry my casket.”
Her prayers were answered when she received a message from her biological father’s sister. Though her father had recently passed away, the contact led to her mother, brother, and cousin traveling from Texas to meet her, according to KTHV.
“This is what I’ve been waiting on 41 years, just to look at you and meet you,” Pruitt told her mother, who was not identified in the footage. Holding white roses, she embraced her mom in a moment she’d long dreamed of.
“God really overdid hisself, and I keep asking myself, ‘Why me?’ ” Pruitt shared. She will undergo a mastectomy on Friday, Nov. 7, with her mother by her side — a gift she calls “more than I could ever ask for.”
