Inside Edition was there for their first meeting.
Two long-lost relatives have reconnected, thanks to a balloon.
Michelle Boisseau wrote a note and stuffed it into a plastic baggie that she attached to a helium balloon.
She told Inside Edition, “I wanted to see where it would go.”
Like a message in a bottle, the bote floated into the ether with the balloon. The winds carried the balloon from New Athens, Illinois, to the tiny town of Clinton, Kentucky.
It traveled a total distance of 170 miles before landing on the side of a country road.
Tommy Ingrum happened to be doing road work in the area for the state. He picked up the silver balloon, opened the baggie and read the note.
“Please it you find me let me know where it landed. Call or text,” the note read.
He texted Boisseau to let her know of the discovery, and when they got to talking, she said that she had spent summers in Clinton, Kentucky, with her grandparents.
“I told him my grandparents' name. He said his mother's maiden name was Stansfield too,” she said.
It was then they discovered they were related.
“In a million years I never thought this would happen,” she said.
Inside Edition was with the long-lost relatives as they met for the first time.
“I never knew she existed,” Ingrum said as Boisseau arrived at his home.
Their great-grandfathers were brothers, making them second cousins.
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