LOS ANGELES (KCAL/KCBS/CNN) - An 18-year-old University of Southern California student set out on a mission to find the woman who made her life possible by donating an egg.
It took some time, but she did just that.
Now, the two share a bond neither of them could have ever predicted.
Amy Throckmorton was herself a student looking to pay her tuition bills when, she said, she answered an ad in the school newspaper looking for egg donors.
She was matched with a couple, she said, but never told if her egg was in fact used. That was in 1999.
She moved to San Diego, and as the years went on, often wondered about the egg.
“As I got older and closer to 40 I knew that if it had been successful, that person would possibly be an adult,” she said.
As it turned out, that’s precisely what happened.
Elizabeth Gaba is now a USC freshman who sings in the school’s award-winning a capella group, the SoCal VoCals.
When she turned 18, she was also able to access her egg donor’s file.
That led to a photo of Throckmorton, and a friend of Gaba’s began contacting women in the sorority she belonged to, eventually finding her.
Gaba discovered Throckmorton, too, had belonged to the a capella group.
“I received a text message, that was like, ‘Are you sitting down?’ I found your egg donor and she was in the VoCals,” Gaba said. “And I immediately started crying.”
For years Throckmorton had wondered if this moment would arrive. And, last month, it did.
“I got a Facebook message with a picture of myself back in the 90s, sweet young thing and asking if I knew this woman? I thought it was very sketchy so I did not answer it at the time,” she said.
But then Gaba called her.
Throckmorton now thought “could be … timing’s right.” What she wasn’t prepared for was how much in common they’d have.
“Not only does this person exist, but they go to my university and they’re in the a capella group that I was one of the first members of 20 years ago,” Throckmorton said. “It’s crazy.”
Now they have a relationship they haven’t come up with a label for.
“I’m not trying to replace her family. We’re friends,” said Throckmorton.
“Yes,” Gaba said. “We’re friends.”
“Friends who just happen to share DNA,” said Throckmorton.
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