As she scanned the smiling faces of schoolchildren on her bus, conductor Freda Pickering often wondered what happened to the baby she gave up for adoption many years before.
Little did she know that the answer was sitting just a few feet away.
For seven years daughter Carole traveled to and from her school every day on the bus her mother worked on.
Had she misbehaved, the schoolgirl may even have received a clip around the ear from the bus conductor who would not stand any nonsense from unruly young passengers.
The extraordinary coincidence was discovered when Carole Davies tracked down her mother – 57 years after she was born in unusual circumstances.
She sent her a letter that began with the words: “Before you start reading this, I suggest you make yourself a cup of tea, and sit down in your best comfy chair. No, it’s not bad news, but it is information that may shock and surprise you and be emotional for you … I believe that you are my mom.”
The pair later met up and it was then Mrs. Davies learnt the full story behind her adoption. It transpired that young Freda had become pregnant following a fling with a Croatian exile, who went on to marry another woman.
The naive 19-year-old didn’t even know she was expecting when she gave birth at home in Collingham in the UK in December 1948. She had walked into her mother’s bedroom carrying her baby and said: “Mom, I think I’ve had a baby.”
Mrs. Pickering, now 83, said: “One night I got this pain in my tummy. I thought babies had to be cut out of you but all of a sudden this baby dropped out.”
The unmarried teenager did what was expected of her in those days and gave baby Carole up for adoption. She said: “Although I wished I could keep her, I knew there was nothing I could do.”
Carole ended up being adopted by a couple who lived just seven miles away and was educated at Tadcaster Grammar School.
On the daily bus trips neither mother nor daughter had any idea who each other was and neither recall any conversations. But in hindsight, at least they moved in the same world.
“It’s nice to think I was a part of her life when she was younger when I thought I wasn’t,” said Mrs. Pickering.
Freda went on to marry bus driver Ron Pickering, who would have driven Carole to school as well. She said: “Ron and I couldn’t have children, and that’s the only thing I regret is not having a family.”
When Ron died after 49 years of marriage his widow thought she was alone in the world.
But a year later in 2005 she received the letter from her daughter. Carole, now 64, told her mother she had been married twice, had two children and three grandchildren (two of whom live in Australia). Now living in Dudley, West Midlands, and working as a teacher, Carole told her mother she didn’t blame her for what she did. “I have always understood it must have been a difficult and emotional choice you had to make,” she wrote.
She asked her mother to contact her but reassured her she would “respect her wishes” if she didn’t want to meet. But it took the elderly mother seconds to get in touch.
Mrs. Pickering said: “As soon as I read the letter I picked up the phone and rang Carole. It was so strange hearing my daughter’s voice. After all, I never knew what she sounded like before.”
Mrs. Davies, who traced her mother with the help of an amateur genealogist, said she “had no idea the lady who checked my bus pass twice a day was my mom. It was a complete shock when we began talking about our past and my school life, and that was mentioned.”
They now have a normal mother-daughter relationship, speaking regularly by phone and meeting up.
This article originally appeared on News.com.au.