text: Mother and Daughter Reunited After Nearly 40 Years at InfoCision Boardman! 
   
   Akron, OH , April 16, 2015 - 
   
   Page Content 
   
   ​InfoCision employees enjoy the company’s family like atmosphere and family-friendly culture. But imagine not realizing you are working in the midst of family members for years. That’s the amazing story unfolding recently for three InfoCision employees in Boardman! 
   
   Since finding out she was adopted, Boardman Media Communicator La-Sonya Mitchell-Clark, 38, of Youngstown has always wanted to know who her biological mother was. Recently the Ohio Department of Health released prior birth records and Mitchell-Clark finally got her answer in the mail on Monday. 
   
   Her birth records included her mother’s name, Francine Simmons. So, she looked her up on Facebook and found out she worked at InfoCision in Boardman. So does Mitchell-Clark. Then, it clicked – there was a Francine at InfoCision she knew. A day later, she got the long-awaited phone call from her birth mother, Boardman Volunteer Recruitment Communicator Francine Simmons! 
   
   They had plenty to talk about, but started with tears of joy. “I’m still in shock. It’s amazing,” Simmons said. She said she always wanted to reconnect with her daughter, but never knew how. 
   
   And the story doesn’t end there. It turns out Mitchell-Clark has three other sisters she didn’t even know about, including another coworker Boardman Volunteer Recruitment Communicator Kamala Cummings! 
   
   “It’s just amazing that all this time we’re thinking about her and trying to find her and she was trying to find us, too,” said sister Maisha Cummings. To top it all off, mom and daughter live just 6 minutes from each other in Youngstown. “Now, we’ve got a bigger extended family where we can just be together,” said Francine Simmons. 
   
   Click here to view the news video and read full story covered locally in Youngstown and nationally via ABC news. ||||| 
   
   YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WYTV) – Birth records and family medical history soon will become available for more then 400,000 people. 
   
   Starting Friday, the Ohio Department of Health will open birth records for those adopted in Ohio between Jan. 1, 1964, and Sept. 18, 1996. 
   
   “It is an opportunity to find out about past family medical history, maybe possibly reconnect with some siblings or their birth parents that they never had the opportunity to find out,” Mahoning County Probate Judge Robert Rusu said. “Most people want the original birth certificate because that has the birth parents name on it and that is what they want to know.” 
   
   Catholic Charities in Youngstown has helped with thousands of adoptions. 
   
   “We have been getting phone calls already, people calling with questions,” Catholic Charities Regional Agency Executive Director Nancy Voitus said. 
   
   She said those calls are being referred to the Ohio Department of Health, Office of Vital Statistics in Columbus, which is handling the records requests. 
   
   But, Voitus wants people to know that each outcome is different. 
   
   “I have seen success stories where people do connect and you can’t believe how wonderful it is for them, to other situations where people put that past in their life and have dealt with it and really don’t want to re-open that,” Voitus said. 
   
   Toni Amey of Canfield was born and adopted in California. 
   
   “Found the contact information for my biological mother and was able to make contact with her. That was probably less than desired. You know, you spend 30 years thinking that mom misses you every day and you find out that she dreaded this day,” Amey said. 
   
   But, Amey said she has gained a sense of freedom by trying to piece together her past. 
   
   “You can fill in the blanks and then you realize those were not the blanks you really needed, that you had the answers all along and you are going to create your own story,” she said. 
   
   The Ohio Department of Health’s website offers detailed information on the forms required for requesting records. ||||| A woman in Ohio reunited with her biological mother who has worked at the same company for the past four years, unbeknown to either of them. 
   
   La-Sonya Mitchell-Clark, 38, of Youngstown, learned her mother's identity after the Ohio Department of Health released birth records last month for those born between Jan. 1, 1964 and Sept. 18, 1996. 
   
   “Ever since I found out that I was adopted, I wanted to know who my biological mother was,” Mitchell-Clark told ABC affiliate station WYTV. 
   
   She received her birth record in the mail Monday from the Department of Health in Columbus. That included her mother’s name, Francine Simmons. She searched for the name on and found out they worked at the same company, InfoCision, a privately held teleservices firm in Boardman, just south of Youngstown. 
   
   “There’s a Francine that works at my job. She works in VR and she works at the front desk,” Mitchell-Clark told WYTV, referring to volunteer recruitment, a nonprofit fundraising program that asks supporters to recruit friends and family. 
   
   Mitchell-Clark contacted friends through social media and, then, a day later, she received a call from her birth mother. Mitchell-Clark has worked for InfoCision for four years, while her mother has been there for 10 years, a company spokeswoman told ABC News. 
   
   "They would come in contact around the building and during events such as our corporate summer cookouts, parties, and using the facilities or in the hallway," said Samantha Wells, an InfoCision spokeswoman who called the reunion "wonderful." 
   
   “She called me and I said, ‘Is this Ms. Francine?’ She said, ‘Yes.’ I said, ‘I think I’m your daughter,’” Mitchell-Clark told WYTV, adding that there were tears of joy. 
   
   The duo learned they live just six minutes from each other. 
   
   “I’m still in shock. It’s amazing,” Simmons told WYTV, adding that she had always wanted to meet her daughter but didn't know how to do so. 
   
   “I got pregnant when I was 14. I had her when I was 15. I was put in a home, a girl’s home. Had her. Got to hold her. Didn’t get to name her, but I named her myself in my heart all these years,” Simmons said. 
   
   Mitchell-Clark learned she has three sisters, with one of whom she works. 
   
   “I feel a sense of relief for my mother,” her sister, Kamala Cummings, told WYTV. She's worked at InfoCision for 10 years and in the same division as her mother, but separate from that of Mitchell-Clark. 
   
   Another sister, Maisha Cummings, told the station, “It’s just amazing that all this time we’re thinking about her and trying to find her and she was trying to find us, too.” 
   
   Mitchell-Clark and Simmons did not respond to requests for comment. 
   
   Mitchell-Clark told the TV station her adoptive parents support the reunion. 
   
   “My mom and dad have always been supportive of me," she said. "[They’ve] always encouraged me to look for them. They’re going to be a part of this, too." 
   
   Simmons told WYTV, “Now, we’ve got a bigger extended family where we can just be together.”
target: – When Ohio's health department released birth records last month for those adopted over a period of more than three decades, a spokesman called it a chance for people to "possibly reconnect with some siblings or their birth parents," WYTV reported at the time. For one Youngstown woman, both her birth mom and sister were much closer than anyone could have guessed. La-Sonya Mitchell-Clark, 38, had been working with her mother for four years before the two found out about it, ABC News reports. Her sister—one of three Mitchell-Clark learned she has—works at the same company, InfoCision. The path to discovery began on Monday, when Mitchell-Clark's birth record arrived in the mail. She learned that her mother's name was Francine Simmons, and she looked up Simmons' Facebook profile, which revealed her place of employment. "There's a Francine that works at my job. She works in (volunteer recruitment) and she works at the front desk," she tells WYTV. It was the same Francine, and the two shared a tearful phone call soon afterward. "They would come in contact around the building and during events such as our corporate summer cookouts," says a rep for the company, which has put out an exclamation point-filled press release about the news. Simmons had always wanted to meet her daughter, whom she gave up at age 15. "Had her. Got to hold her. Didn't get to name her, but I named her myself in my heart all these years," Simmons tells ABC. The two women live only six minutes apart. (Another incredible reunion saw a mother reconnect with the daughter she heard had died 50 years ago.)