James has searched for a half-sibling for 59 years and meets Shawntel, who may be his sister, while waiting for DNA results. Shawntel learned of James through a genealogist on Facebook and recalls her mother's vague pregnancy rumors. James says DNA "doesn't lie" and hopes for the family connection he's never had.
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All right, everyone, we have been talking to James who's hoping to solve a 59-year-old DNA mystery. He's about to meet one of his potential sisters face-to-face for the very first time. James, are you ready? You ready? All right, well, let me, everyone, please help me welcome Shawntel to the show. Hey, Shawntel, nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you too.
So I see you crying. How do you feel right now?
I feel good.
Yeah?
I feel good. I feel excellent.
So did you have any idea that your mother may have had a child, that you may have a brother, another brother?
Well, when I was younger, you know, she, I kind of heard it, you know, in passing, but I never elaborated on it 'cause I'm the baby and James was 8 years older than me, so. And everybody was telling me, you know, they never seen my mom pregnant.
So how did you find out about James?
The lady, the genealogy lady, she messaged me through Facebook and I was like, of course, give her my number.
Yeah.
Of course, give him my number.
So do you believe James is your brother?
Yes.
You do? Why do you believe that?
Because he looks like us and I just, I believe it.
So how did your siblings react when they found out about James?
They weren't too much saying that he wasn't our brother. They just wasn't happy with the idea, I wanna say.
So your mother has passed away?
Yes.
I'm very sorry about that.
She passed away in '99, yeah.
I asked James this question earlier and I'm gonna ask you the same thing. Are you nervous about these DNA results? No. No?
'Cause I know he my brother. Mm, okay.
James, what does it feel like for you to hear her be so confident?
It's absolutely priceless. And I'm happy that at least one of my siblings on that side, you know, kind of see the light.
One of your potential siblings on that side.
Yes, potentially. And you know, she sees the light. She sees the opportunity for us to coexist as brothers and sisters. But the bottom line is, is that DNA don't lie.
You're right, yeah, you're right, yeah. Which is why we're gonna get the results. Listen everyone, before we get to the results, James' stepdaughter, Arshana, is in the audience. I wanna meet her. So I want you to get the idea. First of all, you look beautiful, by the way.
Thank you.
Okay. So what gave you the idea to pull all of this together for James?
Yeah, so just hearing his story. I didn't have a dad in my life. My mom raised me single parent, but when James came into my life, I could see how important it was to have that father figure. But James didn't have that opportunity to have a hole filled because he didn't know who his family was. And so just realizing that there was a part of him that was just missing, I wanted to be able to give him something that made him feel just a little bit better about himself. He considers family to be so important. He takes it very, very seriously. Like, he's an amazing father. And like, it's crazy 'cause I literally was just telling him that he's such a great dad.
So what do you hope happens today?
Well, I hope that this just allows for everybody to just get the healing and the closure that they need, no matter what the results are.
Wow. I'm gonna tell you, one of the main reasons that I wanted to have my own show was to do this, to be able to connect families, to have healing. You know, we all have that little child in us that needs healing. And that's always been my goal within my entire career. And so I think there's no better time than now to get to the DNA results.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Hold up, hold up. Where are you going? I know you wanna watch more Karamo, so click here to subscribe and click here to watch more so we can keep talking and growing, friends. I love you.
