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SANDY — A group of siblings who have the same mother met for the first time in a unique family reunion Thursday afternoon.
The six siblings were split across several states and came from three different "families" but they all had the same mother, Betty Lou Campbell. The siblings said that it took them years to find each other after their complicated backgrounds split them apart.
Galen Chatterton said that he didn't even realize that he had been adopted until he was almost 40 years old. He said that he had been adopted at birth and after he made the discovery, he set out trying to track down and locate his other biological siblings.
"I feel a love for them," Chatterton said. "And I feel love from them. I welcome not only everybody in my family into my home, I welcome them into my life."
Betty Lou Campbell was homeless at 11 years old and had a daughter when she was 13, according to her children. They said that their oldest sister has still not been located. At 19, Campbell had a son, Chatterton, and put him up for adoption.
Campbell got married a few years later and had three children — Charlotte, Cathy and Richard. Campbell then got divorced and remarried and had BJ and Loretta. She got divorced and remarried one more time and then adopted Janine.
We're all like one big family. We just have never got together.
–Charlotte Ewing
Despite their mother's mistakes, the siblings said they don't hold any bitter feelings and that they were happy to finally meet each other.
"One main common denominator caused all of this," said Loretta Williams. "And no regrets."
Williams flew in from Texas for the reunion.
"I call it a union," said Charlotte Ewing, a California resident. "We're all like one big family. We just have never got together. I always wanted a big brother. I used to imagine having a big brother, and there he is."
The siblings said that their mother, Betty Lou, passed away two years ago. They shared their stories and memories of her to piece together her history.
"When I was about seven or eight, she actually came to visit us," said Cathy Galvan, a California resident. "And this is how she was. She'd stay and then she'd disappear. Stay and disappear."
Chatterton said that although their mother has passed away, he felt that she was also attending the reunion in spirit.
"Today, I'm sure she is really excited," he said.
However, the family members seemed to be more focused on their future together than the past.
"I love family," Williams said. "I love a big family. And now I really have one."
The family said that there were two more siblings in New Mexico and Texas who couldn't make it to the reunion, but that they were planning to all get together again soon.
