and renee to her office to hear in person the results of the test. 99.99% probability. that s it. yep, that means it s confirmed. i can t believe this is actually happening. how soon could they meet geri, the sisters wanted to know. and what s she like? how did she know shirley? we arranged a reunion for the next day. geri arrived first and told us how she saw the long lost girls on our program. i saw the picture of shirley and went crazy. i was hysterical because i knew who she was. and then when i saw the girls, i knew they were mine. after how all those years? 37 years. there they are. what did that feel like? it felt great. i had been hoping to find my children before i died because i m getting old. and it was like a miracle. geri s story that shirley who
they called her pepper. pepper smith. she was not yet 5 years old. we lived in cars and motels and going from state to state staying at salvation armies to get a meal here and there. just what s it like to live in a car? it s horrible. it s embarrassing. she was confused, of course, and terribly frightened at first. she begged, take me home. shirley ignored her. she imagined running away. i had nowhere to go. i was too scared. then as the weeks and months and then years went by, as her powers of reasoning grew, the question grew, too. did her mother bobbie actually give her away? shirley told pepper that renee was her sister. the two girls listened wide-eyed as shirley explained to strangers that she was their grandmother. that their parents had been killed in a car accident. i knew that everything that
a little older then. didn t matter. they dashed off to her bedroom to play. this is renee now. that room is stuck in her memory, too. her room was gorgeous. a nice sized room for a little kid. she had a canopy bed. tons of dresses. toys galore. and you had none of that. no. and i was like, wow, this is nice. an alien world to renee. the most wonderful thing she d ever seen. and while the little girls played in the bedroom, shirley was with bobbie in the living room talking. and then she called renee. so when it was time to leave, i didn t want to go. can we stay longer? no, but your new friend is coming with us, said shirley. oh, okay. so she came, and then that s how everything started. so it did. it was to be an overnight, the girls were told. a little fun. they d stay with shirley in her los angeles motel room, return the next morning. that was the plan, said shirley. but shirley lied.
was happening to us was completely wrong at a very, very young age. why had she been taken? she didn t know. not for money, certainly. there were no ransom demands. and without pepper s birth certificate, shirley couldn t use her to score public assistance. though she did use renee that way. frightened, compliant renee, eager for a mother s love, even if that mother figure was shirley. i never wanted to do anything wrong. i felt like if i did something wrong or whatever, she wouldn t love me. she would give me away. wouldn t love me? shirley told her, says renee, she was born to a prostitute drug addict named geri. that shirley saved baby renee, raised her as a daughter. but kept renee in line by threatening to abandon her. did she ever threaten to do that? yeah, many times. we d do something wrong, and she would say, well, you stop doing
actually happening. how soon could they meet geri, the sisters wanted to know. and what s she like? how did she know shirley? we arranged a reunion for the next day. geri arrived first and told us how she saw the long lost girls on our program. i saw the picture of shirley and went crazy. i was hysterical because i knew who she was. and then when i saw the girls, i knew they were mine. after how all those years? 37 years. there they are. what did that feel like? it felt great. i had been hoping to find my children before i die because i m getting old. and it was like a miracle. geri s story that shirley who took the girls had been her friend turned roommate turned babysitter. she said i ll babysit for you. i ll take care of her while you work. i said, well, that s great