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Michigan man discovers birth mother is co-worker at home-improvement store

2 hours, 5 minutes ago

By The Associated Press

PLAINFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. - A Michigan man's long search for his birth mother is over.

It ended at the checkout line of the home-improvement store where he works. Steve Flaig, a 22-year-old delivery driver, says he's known Christine Tallady since she started working at Lowe's several months ago.

But he just recently figured out that she was the woman who had given him up for adoption.

Flaig says he would often walk by her, "not knowing how to approach her."

It took him a few weeks, and some help from the adoption agency, to give her the news.

With support from his adoptive parents, Flaig had asked the agency for information on his birth mother when he turned 18.

Tallady, who was single and not ready to be a mother when she gave birth to Flaig in 1985, had left the adoption record open, figuring he would want to contact her one day.

Flaig received information, including Tallady's name, but Internet searches turned up nothing. He didn't make the connection after meeting his birth mother because he didn't know her last name.

In October, Flaig looked at the paperwork again and realized he had been spelling Tallady's surname wrong. He soon came up with a home address around the corner from where he was raised, and less than two kilometres from the Lowe's in Plainfield Township, just outside Grand Rapids.

When he mentioned it to his boss, she said, "You mean Chris Tallady, who works here?"

"I was like, there's no possible way," Flaig said.

On Dec. 12, Flaig happened to be driving past the offices of DA Blodgett for Children, the adoption agency, so he stopped in and told them of his find. An employee there volunteered to call Tallady for him.

Tallady, 45, who is head cashier at the Lowe's store, was astonished to learn that the son she had given up for adoption 22 years earlier was a co-worker.

"I started crying," she said. "I figured he would call me sometime, but not like this."

Flaig said he is eager to meet Tallady's other two children, 12-year-old Alexandria and 10-year-old Brandon, his half siblings.

"I have a complete family now, all my kids," Tallady said. "It's a perfect time of year. It's the best Christmas present ever."