91-Year-Old Woman Finds Out before Her Death She Raised Stranger’s Son as Her Own

A 91-year-old woman discovers that the son she had been raising all his life was not hers all along just a few months before her death. The accidental discovery was made by her granddaughter, who found her father's relatives online after an ancestry test.

The world is no stranger to the idea of babies being switched at birth because of how creative Hollywood shows and movies can get. In real life, however, it's an extremely rare occasion that's only been proven true for a handful of cases.

When Shirley Perkins took her baby home from a hospital in Warsaw, New York, she never imagined what happened behind closed doors before she took her newborn home. Instead, she raised her child happily and gave him the best possible care.

Feeling Different from His Family

Years later, when her son, named Andy Perkins, was already in middle school, he began to rebel. He was diagnosed with severe ADHD, and at the time, he was frustrated that while he had blue eyes and light hair, his parents and siblings were all darker than him and much taller.

Andy began to think he was adopted, but Shirley and her husband Jim assured him he wasn't. They ultimately shrugged off his doubts as "adolescent rebellion."

Andy Had a Good Childhood

Despite it all, Andy had a good childhood. His parents loved him and supported him throughout all of his teenage phases. They never fell short on being kind, loving, and overall great parents, making him realize what he was going through was just typical teenage behavior.

While trying to think of what possibly happened, Andy was 100% sure he was not adopted.

Discovering His DNA Ancestry

Years later, Andy was forced to revisit the topic of his adolescent rebellion after his daughter, Candi Perkins Summer, started digging into their family history. Through DNA testing, she accidentally learned her dad was in no way related to any of the Perkins family members.

Instead, Andy was related to people with the last name "Robinson." His biological family members were scattered around Warsaw and Rochester, New York, South Carolina and Tennessee.

Trying to Find the Truth

Candi was left baffled, and so was her father. In fact, it took him three weeks before asking his daughter to contact his biological family.

While trying to think of what possibly happened, Andy was 100% sure he was not adopted. He could not imagine his parents ever straying from their marital vows, as they were overly religious and faithful people.

But years after the discovery, Candi found a newspaper article announcing her father's birth, which seemed to solve the puzzling mystery. Right below his name was information on a boy named Philip, born to a certain Harold and Pauline McElwain Robinson.

The boy named Philip was born a day before Andy in the same hospital in Warsaw. With that information, Candi concluded her dad was likely switched at birth at the hospital.

Finally Getting Much-Needed Closure

It all made sense to Andy, who finally got the closure he needed from feeling isolated during his teenage years. After living in doubt for most of his life, he felt validated for the first time.

It took a while for him to believe what was happening, until he saw a photo of his biological mother when she was a child. They shared the same profile and hair color, which convinced him the switch was true.

Andy never got to meet his biological parents because Pauline died in 2015, while her husband Harold died the following year. This started a grieving process for Andy, not just for never meeting them but for their deaths as well.

Although he never met his biological parents, Andy admitted it was all very tough on him. He shared, "It was an unexpected and difficult thing."

Meeting the Rest of the Family

Andy was blessed to have met his biological siblings, Brian, Sally, Lisa, and Doug. They instantly grew close and called each other almost every day at one point after meeting.

All of this happened unbeknownst to Shirley until Andy and his daughter finally decided to tell her in 2021. Her calm reaction surprised the father and daughter when all she said was, “Isn't the Lord good?" It was the final closure Shirley needed after living a full life.

A few months after the revelation and just a month shy of her 92nd birthday, Shirley died. Unfortunately, she never got to meet Philip, her biological son, who had died of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma just a couple of weeks after he turned 6.

Blessed with the Best of Both Worlds

For Andy, discovering his biological family meant having two loving families, filling him with love. He added:

"Many people have no family. I am blessed with two wonderful families."

He now carries the surname Robinson-Perkins and celebrates two birthdays: September 12, his true birth date, and September 13, his legal birth date. Ultimately, he thanks God for being good to him all his life.

As for Shirley, while she never got to meet her biological son, she found comfort in knowing she was able to raise Andy in the best way she could, and without any doubts and hesitations, too. In the end, she was able to rest in peace knowing there were no questions left unanswered.

In another story, a poor child is led to believe she was switched at birth by her mother, only to discover she lied and simply didn't want her daughter to find out about her father. Click here to read all about it.