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Hilda Guzman of Snyder (right) was reunited with her sister, Magda Wall of Hookstown, Penn, for the first time in 40 years. -
Hilda and Daniel Guzman moved to Snyder five years ago to begin the Spanish Church of God. Hilda, who had been given up for adoption as a child, was recently reunited with one of seven siblings.
When she was young, Snyder’s Hilda Guzman experienced “flashes of memory” that she did not understand. Most were good but at least one was unnerving.
Guzman, the wife of Daniel Guzman, who is the pastor of the Spanish Church of God, said she has memories of playing with a toy kitchen and finding toys under a blanket on Christmas morning.
Other memories were less reassuring.
While attending elementary school in Mexico, Guzman said a man came up to her and said, “I’m your father.” She did not recognize him so she walked away.
At the time, Guzman said parents were being warned to keep children safe because kidnappers were in the area.
The father Guzman knew was a minister and served as the superintendent of Spanish Pentecostal Holiness Church until 1972. When that job ended, he was invited to minister in the United States.
Three months later, the family moved to America and Guzman became a U.S. citizen five years later.
She enjoyed a good relationship with her parents, but they hit a snag when at 19-years-old, she became engaged to Daniel Guzman, who was seven years her elder.
“My parents thought Daniel was too old for me,” Guzman said.
After the wedding was cancelled for a third time, Guzman’s parents took her to visit their son and his wife in Monterey, Mexico “to think things over.”
Guzman learned the truth behind her memories during that trip. The story began to unfold as soon as she heard her sister-in-law tell her parents to tell “Hilda that she was adopted.”
“I was so upset when I heard the news,” Guzman said. “Then I decided to find my birth family.” The first person she contacted was the woman who served as the liaison for the adoption. Then she met her birth mother, who suffered from a heart condition.
Guzman learned that her birth mother was too sick to care for her and two siblings. The siblings were adopted by the same family and knew the circumstances of their birth, Guzman said. Guzman was one of eight children in the family and the five remaining siblings stayed with their birth mother.
Even after Guzman learned about her siblings, there was no reunion. She said the liaison told all parties involved that the other siblings preferred to have no contact.
“We lost 40 years of communicating with each other because of the lies told,” Guzman said. “I don’t know why she did that.”
But things did brighten for Guzman.
In April, Guzman and her husband returned from a trip to Dallas when they noticed several calls “from a weird number.” The voice on the answering machine said, “Hilda, this is your sister, Magda.”
Magda Wall, 70, hired a private investigator to locate her sister. According to Guzman, the investigator first tried to contact the Guzmans through their daughter on social media. Since her daughter did not know the person, Guzman said she never replied to the messages.
But Wall did not give up and the investigator was able to contact the Guzmans. In July, Guzman and her husband flew to Hookstown, Pa. to meet her sister.
“It was a very emotional meeting,” Guzman said. “We cried a lot. I never thought I would find her. All I knew was that (Magda) lived somewhere in Pennsylvania.”
Guzman also learned that three siblings live in Monterey and two are in the Rio Grande Valley. A reunion is planned during Thanksgiving in South Texas.
Guzman said she did not know she was adopted because her parents always called her their daughter. But she has no regrets.
“My adopted parents gave me a good life,” she said.