Roger Meir sports a large, red birthmark on his right arm. While the discolored patch of skin might be an embarrassment for another person, for Meir, it played a significant role in enabling his teenaged biological mother, Ruth, to recognize him when the two were reunited 47 years after his birth.
As her infant son, whom she named “Charles Robert,” was taken away to meet his adoptive parents, Ruth realized all she had to remember was his sweet face and the distinctive mark on his arm. Meir told Live Action News, “My mother had prayed that day that I would have good parents and that one day, she’d see that birthmark again.”
Ruth was just 15 years old when one day as she was walking home from school, she was raped in an alley by three men, resulting in a pregnancy. It was 1949, and the stigma of being unmarried and pregnant would be unbearable. Ruth was taken to The Friends Rescue Home in Columbus, Ohio, where Meir was born.
Afterward, Ruth’s mother told her to never speak of her traumatic experience, so she remained silent. But she never relinquished hope that she would someday see her child again.
“I grew up knowing I had been adopted,” Meir said. “I didn’t know why my birth mother would place me for adoption, but I just made peace with it. I figured she had a very good reason that compelled her to make that decision.”
In Mahoning County where Meir’s adoptive parents resided, they were informed that because they were both over the age of 40, they would not be permitted to adopt an infant. They decided to travel south to Columbus to Friends Rescue Home where the adoption requirements were less rigid. Meir was just four days old when his parents took him home and re-named him “Roger.”
Meir said, “They had to get a good attorney to fight on their behalf in court. In the end, the adoption was finalized, and I enjoyed a good life with loving parents. My father now had the son he had always wanted. They sent me to church regularly, though they themselves rarely attended but I did have a solid Christian upbringing.”
Little did Meir know that his childhood home was just a mile away from where Ruth lived, where she was now married with five children. Ironically, Ruth’s mother came to Meir’s house once to buy a license plate from his mother.
“My mother sold license plates from home,” Meir said. “One day, Ruth’s mother came to the house to purchase a license plate and had no idea who I was, nor did I realize at the time this woman was my biological grandmother.”
A mother’s love endures through 50 years of separation
Ruth, unbeknownst to Meir, was still praying and believing she’d be reunited with her firstborn son. Soon, the reunion would be set into motion when Ruth confided to a friend about giving birth at The Friends Rescue Home in Columbus.
Meir said, “Her friend just happened to know my adoptive mother and knew she and my dad had driven to Columbus to pick up a baby boy around the time Ruth had placed her baby for adoption. The similarities were strong, so she wanted to meet me.”
On October 9, 1996, Ruth and Meir met for the first time since she bade him goodbye almost 50 years earlier. As she gazed at his prominent birthmark, Ruth tenderly held his arm and declared him to be “her baby boy.” In time, Ruth shared the circumstances of his birth with Meir, who only felt love and compassion for her.
“I knew something had happened where she was unable to raise me,” Meir said. “I felt bad for what she went through. But she wanted me to know that although I had been conceived during a violent act, that to her, I was her precious baby. She told me that when she looked at me, she saw not tragedy, but only love.”
He was touched to learn Ruth had never stopped searching for him. She would go into a grocery store and look around, hoping to see a man whose arm God had branded with the familiar mark.
Meir said, “She was such a strong, courageous woman. She suffered through years of heartache but never stopped believing God would turn it around.”
While Meir was excited to meet his half-siblings, they were at first a bit unwelcoming, especially since Ruth had kept her story from them for so long.
“It was upsetting to them, not knowing for most of their lifetimes that they had another brother,” Meir said. “I understood that and eventually, things were smoothed over.”
A family tree springs from the roots of a teen’s love for her baby
If it weren’t for Ruth and her parents, Meir’s two sons, five grandchildren and one great-grandchild wouldn’t have been born.
“The generations of family and the loving bonds we share would have never happened had she made the decision to end her pregnancy,” Meir said.
His credits his own pro-life advocacy to his Christian upbringing and his father’s vocation as a paramedic and volunteer firefighter.
Meir said, “I saw how my father was dedicated to saving lives and it made an impact on me. Just before he passed from cancer, I shared Christ’s love with him, and my mother accepted Christ shortly after.”
Ruth and Meir enjoyed a warm and caring relationship for the remainder of her life and even partnered to help with fundraisers for the local pregnancy support center.
“We see how God orchestrated everything,” Meir said. “God always had a plan to restore those years that had been stolen from her.
Ruth wrote a heartfelt poem about her experience and one line stands out to Meir that especially epitomizes Ruth’s enduring faith in God’s goodness: “Only God knows that this was His plan and now with joy and love we are both in God’s hands.”
