Man adopted as a baby reunites with long-lost mother and helps her run a bakery

On November 10, 2024By Pranco

CHICAGO (WLS) — A Chicago man and his long-lost mother have a lot of catching up to do after being reunited several years ago. He now helps her run the bakery where he was a regular customer before he found out she was the owner.

There’s a lot of laughter coming from the kitchen of Give Me Some Sugah, a bakery in Chicago, as mother and son Vamarr Hunter and Lenore Lindsey work together. The two only discovered they were related a few years ago.

“It’s the most joyful story and the most joyful time of my life that all of this came together in my senior years,” Lindsey said.

Lenore Lindsey, left, was 17 when she gave her newborn son up for adoption. Years later she... — Lenore Lindsey, left, was 17 when she gave her newborn son up for adoption. Years later, she and Vamarr Hunter were reunited after he became curious about his birth mother.(Source: Lenore Lindsey, WLS via CNN)

Lindsey was 17 when she gave her newborn son up for adoption. Hunter was 35 when he learned he was adopted, and years later he became curious about his birth mother. So he submitted results for genetic testing.

It turned out that the mother and son lived in the same South Shore neighborhood and that he was a regular at the bakery she owned.

“When I called him, the connection was so immediate,” Lindsey said. “I can’t even explain it. It was like everything in my heart broke open.”

Lindsey believes God brought them together. When they discovered their relationship, she faced a health crisis, which led to Hunter – who had no previous baking experience – taking over the bakery. These days he’s especially proud of his pound cake.

“It was a great experience. It further strengthens my faith,” Hunter said.

Now that Lindsey’s health is better, she and her son often work together.

“You can’t catch up on the times gone by. What you can do is use the time you have appropriately,” Hunter said.

Hunter recently met the sister he never knew and an entire extended family. Now that he knows more about his family line, he plans to keep the bakery in the family. He says that once he retires, he wants to pass it on to one of his four children.