JASONVILLE, Ind. — Thanksgiving is a day to appreciate all the good things in our life, and one Indiana woman now has something new to appreciate.
Tammy Owen found her biological family.
"All the time growing up you've always got this pit that you're missing something, something is missing," said Owen.
Owen said she has always known that she was adopted, according to WTWO/WAWV.
"That was not something that was ever hidden from me, but records were closed and sealed and all that up until, I wanna say roughly 2019, and then you could actually apply for your identifying information," she said.
Owen began researching, trying to locate her birth family. She didn't have any success until her daughter suggested she try Ancestry.com. The painstaking research took a turn when Owen tried a different name on the website.
"And came across the picture of who would be our Aunt Cindy that looked just like me in high school. I make jokes of with my short hair that she had long blonde hair and it was me in a Hannah Montana wig. But I went and woke everybody up at the house and said, 'I found 'em, I found 'em finally.'"
That picture took Owen to a home Martinsville, Indiana.
"They had the garage door and she's walking out and she says to me, she said, Theressa, why did you tell them? Why'd you tell him you think I'm your aunt? And as she gets closer to me, she realizes I'm not Theressa and just, like, stops," said Owen.
And after 50 years, Owen finally would meet her brother, Pete Moore.
Moore said he knew he has a sister out there somewhere. He had been processing that she was found.
"When I got the call, I, you know, I was like, I was happy, but I was also like, uh, conflicted just because it's like, is this real, um, you know, something that we'd tried for so long to find out and then just suddenly it's just like in our lap," he said.
Both Owen and Moore agree they discovered there's no doubt they're related.
"That's probably the thing I find the funniest now is how many little quirks that he has that I have and mannerisms and all those things," said Owen. "I think that's the things I find fascinating on a daily basis that you see it or we'll walk and people will be like, my gosh, you guys even walk the same."
And with the reunion complete, the siblings are now in business together.
"He had a food truck sitting there and I said, 'Well, what are you doing with that?' And he's like, 'Well, I used to have it and I'd just kind of go out around on the roads around here and then Dugger and whatnot,' and he's like, 'But I'd really like to get it going.' And I said, 'Then let's do it!'"
It led to a joint venture where the pair serves up meals in both a brick and mortar restaurant and on that food truck.
They're making up for lost time.
"Life's short and, uh, today's a gift and tomorrow's not a promise. So even if we just have five years, it's better than never having that opportunity to know each other at all," said Moore.