The call came just a few days before Thanksgiving. "It came out of the blue," said Sherrill O'Connell-Clark, a Lynn Haven resident, "from an investigator." The voice on the phone took her name, age, and place of birth, and then calmly informed Sherrill that her mother, Pat Mock, was looking for her.

Sherrill had not seen her mother for 42 years. When she was only 2 years old, Clark's father took his two children - Sherrill and her brother, Jimmy O'Connell - out for ice cream and never brought them home, she said. She has no memories of her mother. She was told that she wasn't wanted. The O'Connells moved from Georgia to Connecticut, then to New York, where her father remarried, finally settling in Florida in 1971. All the while, Sherrill didn't know if her mother was still alive, or if she was looking for her. "I never dropped my maiden name," she said. "Just in case my mother ever wanted to find me." It was Sherrill's aunt who began the search for her long-lost niece. Joy Lewis, who lives in Tampa, found a Web site, www.reunitepeople.com, which is run by Lynn-Marie Carty.

Carty is a former private investigator who spent her days "doing gloom-and-doom cases." She recalled the worst day of her career, when a construction crew installing a water line dug up dozens of infant corpses and threw them away. She had to track down the family of each one. She knew she was in the wrong business, and prayed that she be shown her gift. Shortly thereafter, she watched a television show on reuniting loved ones, and decided it was her calling. She launched her company in St. Petersburg  in 1997 and began bringing families together. "It's beautiful," Carty said. "After they have been reunited, they volunteer to help others."

Carty now has a regional network that helps her with public records requests and delivering messages in person. She said it has made her work easier. Sherrill is anxious to begin working with Carty to help others in her situation. "It only took her three days to find me," she said. "I couldn't believe it." Sherrill's mother lives in Kansas, and her half-siblings live in Wisconsin. They plan to meet in March at Sherrill's daughter's wedding in Venice. Lewis will be there. Mock is scheduled to fly down from Kansas. For now, Sherrill is focused on the future, not the past. "This is the best Christmas I've ever had in my whole life," she said, "just knowing that I have a family. I can't wait to meet them."