Lenore Lindsey never stopped thinking about the baby boy she placed for adoption in 1974, when she was 17.
What did he look like? Was he happy?
Unbeknowst to Lindsey, she already had some answers.
Lindsey’s long-lost son, Vamarr Hunter, happened to be a regular at her Give Me Some Sugah bakery in Chicago. Not only that, he lived a block away.
“You can’t tell this story without thanking God,” Hunter told TODAY’s Laura Jarrett. “I was just led the entire way.”
Hunter, now 50, was 35 when he learned he was adopted. In 2022, after years of searching, he enlisted the help of genetic genealogist Gabriella Vargas to find his birth mother.
After Vargas determined that she’d found Hunter’s mother, she reached out to Lindsey, 67, with Hunter’s name and phone number. If Lindsey was interested, Hunter very much wanted to meet her.
Out of caution, Lindsey called Hunter from the bakery line.
“Because I wasn’t sure who he was or anything,” Lindsey explained.
When Hunter, a father of four, saw Give me Some Sugah pop up on his caller ID, he was confused.
“I thought, ‘I didn’t order anything,’” he recalled. “Then I heard a voice, and I was like, ‘Miss Lenore?’”
Once Hunter and Lindsey realized what was happening, they both started screaming. Hunter had been frequenting Give Me Some Sugah on a weekly basis for more than a decade.
Hunter said he came for the lemon bars and pancakes, but there was also something else that drew him in.
“The whole vibe, it was just comfortable,” Hunter said, noting that Lindsey would often joke around with him, asking, “Hey, you gonna eat all that?”
Lindsey was recovering from breast cancer surgery and shortly after Hunter and Lindsey reunited, she experienced a stroke. Hunter, who had no baking experience, quit his job and stepped in to help his mother manage the bakery. He now works alongside Lindsey full-time.
“He’s absolutely the best cake maker,” Lindsey gushed. “His cake is so much better than mine. I don’t even know how.”
After Lindsey and Hunter’s story made headlines, they noticed an influx of new customers. People who are interested in their family business can stay up to date on their website.