- This video's for my friends in North Carolina.

I miss y'all so much.

- This year has kept so many of us apart from the people that we love.

- I have a new granddaughter, she was born three weeks ago.

I only see her on FaceTime.

- Right now I'm missing my friend, Ethan we went to high school together and that was my dog.

- The person I miss the most would probably be my best friend Dan.

- We're texting every day, we're on video chats.

If anything, maybe we speak to each other too much.

(upbeat music) - Due to the risk of Coronavirus, air travel is down 70% in America.

- For me, even a visit to someone's home across town feels impossible.

- My dad's been really far away from me.

He retired halfway around the planet and I really miss him.

As-salamu alaykum Babaji.

How are you today?

- Well, I'm in Pakistan in a small village near Lahore.

- It's been a long time.

- At least you are calling and visiting us every week.

That is helping a lot.

- Papa's home.

- Hi!

I'm home.

- When this is over I can't wait to enjoy every single moment I have with my best friend.

- I look forward to seeing people's faces again.

- When this thing is over, all I wanna do is hug my mom.

- For Mary Beth DeSanto, she was hoping for a reunion decades in the making.

- The one really sad thing in my life was giving up my baby daughter 50 years ago.

- [Danielle] For half a century, Mary Beth has wondered what happened to the baby she gave up for adoption.

- I was 17 and my parents took me to Our Lady of Victory, Was a home for unwed mothers, girls that were pregnant.

I didn't want to take a chance on ruining her life.

I remember looking at her and just thinking, what am I going to do with you?

- In 1970, teen pregnancy was even more stigmatized and the options available were quite different.

- And in a pre-Roe v. Wade America an unexpected pregnancy was usually legally required to be carried to term.

- [Ali] As a result, adoptions were far more common and in most cases, birth parents would never know who adopted their child.

- So on March 5th, when I got the letter and it was from Victoria, I couldn't believe it.

- Hello, Mary Beth.

My name is Victoria Rich.

This may not be the letter you'd expect to receive every day.

I truly hope this letter is not an unwelcome intrusion.

- My motivation has been to let my birth mother know things turned out okay.

And I hope the same for her.

All I ever wanted was for her to just be okay.

- [Danielle] In early 2020 New Yorker, Victoria Rich was able to find out who her birth mother was after the state passed a law that allowed adoptees to gain access to their original birth certificates.

- Being adopted I often did wonder who my birth parents might be, but there's the fear of not knowing what you're gonna find out.

- As soon as I started stopped shaking, I dialed her number.

- A call was coming in from Erie, Pennsylvania.

I don't know why I was like trying to be cool just like hello.

I'm just like, I know who this is.

There was a long pause.

And she said, it's Mary Beth.

Like, Oh my God.

- [Ali] Their first conversation changed everything.

And they couldn't wait to reunite after a lifetime apart.

- She's like, you have two brothers and they're gonna be so excited to meet you.

- I couldn't believe it.

- It really was a dream come true for me.

- [Danielle] But by the following week, the rest of the country was experiencing a paradigm shift, too.

- Everything got canceled because of the coronavirus.

Everyone was just kind of in lockdown.

- It's been five months, - And we still have not met.

- To be so close to meeting and have a derail that the last minute must've been really hard.

- Yeah I feel that we've had to postpone my dad's first trip to come and meet my daughter.

I don't know when it's gonna happen now.

- Oh look who is that?

Sleepy bug here.

How are you?

Whenever the time comes I would like to be close to her.

- I kind of wish I could ask her in her three-year-old mind, where does she think you live?

Part of me thinks she thinks you live in the phone.

I don't- (Anwar laughs) - We had one Zoom meeting.

That didn't go real well it kept freezing.

And then we'd just be staring at each other with our mouths open or something.

- I can relate.

Okay.

Can you hear us now?

- Can you hear me?

- We can hear you.

Can you hear me?

Okay.

- Technical difficulties aside, Mary Beth and Victoria tried to stay in touch.

- We've been texting a lot.

We've talked a lot about everything from the beginning.

We both realized that we shared a very similar sense of humor - There were times that I had to put the phone down that I was laughing so hard.

She mentioned that she always wanted a cauldron, I think would look nice in my fireplace.

I said, Oh, I thought maybe you were Wiccan.

It sounds weird to other people, but it was funny to us.

- [Ali] With the initial peak of the pandemic in New York over Victoria decided to make the seven hour trip to Erie, Pennsylvania to meet her birth mother.

- Definitely feeling kind of anxious.

And I've already had too much caffeine.

Here we go.

(upbeat music) My birthday is August 20th.

I am turning 50.

The last time we saw each other was almost exactly 50 years ago to the day.

And so I decided that that would be something good to do for this kind of monumental birthday.

- And she said to me, nobody's getting any younger.

She's gonna be at my door in a few days.

- Making this trip during a pandemic has been a little challenging.

I have not been away from my house.

I've not been around more than a couple of people.

It like adds this whole weird layer of planning.

Okay, here we are.

(upbeat music) - Just worried about what she's gonna think of me in person.

- I just assume people aren't gonna like me.

And I know that I know that's weird.

You know, coz I'm a little bit nervous, it's like, oh, we don't really know each other.

And I was like, but I do, like, I was inside you first nine months.

In 10 minutes, I will be meeting my birth mother.

Oh my hair is like kinda crazy looking.

(mumbles) Almost here - After 15 years of sadness, I'm really ready for some happiness.

(soft music) - It's been a long time coming.

- You don't have to bend over.

- Okay, I know am really tall.

- Don't you remember that I told you that I'm really tall?

- Yes I never thought I would have the opportunity to ever see her again.

I'm 68 and I kinda felt like time had run out.

- Can you take off your mask for a second so I see what you look like?

- And this is naturally curly hair?

Wonder where I got it from?

(all laugh) - [All] Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday to you.

- It's wild to see her in real life.

It's like something I've never experienced.

(all cheer) - She's wonderful.

More than I ever expected.

(Victoria laughs) - It's a mini caldron.

The advice I would give anyone right now, who's wavering on whether or not to reach out to someone that they've been separated from is I think they should do it.

- It's been a great weekend thought I'd be sadder right now, but I'm just so happy because, now you're in our life.

- Just do it and put some positive vibes out into the world.

- I missed you so much.

Not to sound very woo woo, but it's all we got right now.

- Have a good trip, I'm glad you came.

- What do you look forward to doing when we are able to see each other?

- To be very honest, I want to be much closer to the daughter than you.

(Ali laughs) and I miss her already.

- One day Inshallah, we'll be able to do that.

- I'm waiting for that - [Narrator] PBS American portrait is - A platform where - People can go to in order to share their experiences - So join in, - Go to PBS - .org - /americanportrait.

- She calls popsicles Pakistan's, but she knows you live in Pakistan.

So either I very much confused her into thinking that you live in some type of giant Popsicle, or she understands that these, there, you can be in a place called Pakistan, or you can be eating a Pakistan too.

(laughs)