CALGARY – The Calgary International Airport hosted an emotional reunion on Sunday.
Jung Yeun Song was only seven years old when she left her family in Korea to undergo a life saving orthopaedic surgery at the Shiners Hospital in Montreal.
But the year she was expected to stay in Canada to recover turned into a lifetime.
Doctors discovered multiple disorders that threatened to leave her paralyzed. Jung underwent 17 surgeries over the next seven years while under the care of her adoptive mother Lorna MacEachen.
Now 31-years-old, Jung has always dreamt of meeting her biological mother once more.
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“It was pretty hard at first but the MacEachen family really made me feel at home but I missed my Korean family,” says Jung.
It was a dream her workplace decided to grant.
The company Jung works for as an engineer surprised her by paying for her mother’s flight from Korea to Calgary to celebrate Jung’s Canadian citizenship ceremony this week.
On Sunday, the women came together for the first time since 1987.
It was an emotional sight for onlookers.
“She misses her so much, so hard for her, always crying – she misses her,” says Lorna.
Lorna says Jung was a surprise gift in her life. The young girl always had an upbeat attitude towards her health problems.
“When I said to her you have to go for another surgery she would say, is it at Shiners? Because it was like Disneyland, they had every toy imaginable.”
It’s been a hard life for Jung and her biological mother but both know how lucky they are to have had the help of the Shiners family and the MacEachen family.
“Growing up I’ve had such a great support system so I don’t regret anything. I have so much appreciation for everybody,” says Jung.
Shiners Hospital in Montreal has helped children around the world since opening in 1925.
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