RICHMOND, Ind. (AP) - It was a reunion 58 years in the making.
Dave Hickman, who as a 14-year-old boy found an infant girl in a woods south of Richmond, was reunited with her Sunday afternoon in an emotional gathering at Maria Mitrione’s Italian Market in the city’s Depot District.
About 50 family, friends and well-wishers watched as Hickman, now living in Vonore, Tennessee, walked into Mitrione’s Rosemary Room and into the arms of Ellen Suey, the woman whose life Hickman saved Sept. 22, 1955.
“I’ve been waiting for this for 58 years,” Hickman said as he looked into her eyes, rubbed her shoulders and fought back tears.
“You’re my hero,” said Suey, who now lives in Riverside, Calif. “This is amazing.”
Hickman was clearly at a loss for words before Suey smiled and said, ’This is the part where you say, ’You look so different.’”
Hickman was hunting with his grandfather, Clay Smith, in a woods along Indiana 122, west of Boston, when he investigated an odd cooing sound. He walked 100 yards and suddenly saw a baby in a pile of brush. He and his grandfather called the sheriff and the baby was taken to Reid Hospital, the Palladium-Item reported (https://pinews.co/Q68PHf ).
The child was named Roseann Wayne and was adopted by a couple who soon left the area.
Hickman had been searching for her for years. In December 2013, he contacted former Wayne County commissioner, councilman and sheriff John Catey.
Catey turned the search into a personal mission, interviewing more than 75 people and looking up records at the Wayne County Courthouse, Morrisson-Reeves Library and online before finding Ellen Suey in California.
“It was just fun to see if I could piece this all together and put them together,” Catey said at the reunion Sunday. “I’m just really thrilled for the two of them and appreciative that I could play a role in that.”
“I think Ellen was resigned to the fact that she would never find the men who found her,” said Suey’s husband, Bob. “John played a significant role. It’s an amazing story already and it’s great to now bring it to a conclusion.”
“If it hadn’t been for John, I don’t know if this would have happened,” Ellen Suey said.
Hickman brought the room to tears when he presented Ellen Suey three roses, noting “that this is our third reunion.”
“The first rose is for a little baby girl that God let my grandfather and me to find in the woods. The second is for the little baby girl named Roseann Wayne that two angels brought to me to say goodbye when I was in school,” he said.
“The third rose is for today and for a very special lady who was saved by the hand of God, Mary Ellen Suey,” Hickman said.
“Right now I’m just kind of numb,” Ellen Suey said. “I’m just so excited to finally meet him. It’s just so nice to meet him and give him a hug and thank him for what he did. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be here.”
“She will always be my little girl,” Hickman said.
Elaine Buckler came to the reunion Sunday to meet both Hickman and Ellen Suey. Buckler’s family lived across the road from the woods where Hickman found the baby.
“(Hickman) and his grandfather came to our house to call the sheriff and then my father (Paul) went with them to wait for the deputies,” Buckler said. “It’s really exciting to be here. I get chills thinking about it.
“This is a story that has always been a topic of conversation in our family,” Buckler said.
Ken Jordan and Matt Mercurio also attended the reunion. They were part of the Richmond High School graduating class with Dave Hickman and have remained close.
“It was a really close class,” Mercurio said. “We ran around together and have stayed close friends.”
“It’s good to be here. We grew up on the west side together. This is a very special day for Dave,” Jordan said.
Richmond Mayor Sally Hutton also attended the reunion.
“This story just says that you never give up. You follow your hopes and dreams and believe that it can be done,” she said. “It also shows that we have a lot of good people here, always have and always will.”
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Information from: Palladium-Item, https://www.pal-item.com
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