User Reviews

When she was 9 years old, Kimberly Michelle Mays discovered the couple who raised her, Robert "Bob" Mays and the late Barbara Coker Mays were not her birth parents and her real name was Arlena Beatrice Twigg. Back in 1978, Kim and another baby girl named Arlena were switched at birth. Kim went home with Bob and Barbara Mays who were a childfree couple with a desire to have a baby. Arlena went home with Ernest and Regina Twigg and immediately became a member of a family with 7 brothers and sisters. Kim and Arlena were the only white girls born in the small, rural hospital, Hardee Memorial in Wauchula, Florida. The real trouble started for both families when Arlena, who was born with a heart problem, needed surgery and her blood type didn't match either Ernest or Regina's. Arlena's surgery in 1988 at age 9 seemed to be successful but all that changed when she died of complications. The Twigg family searched for their bio daughter and found Kimberly and her widowed-divorced father. I felt bad for both families because they were lied to and deceived unfairly! I don't believe Bob or Barbara switched the babies like Regina Twigg says. Kimberly didn't ask for this. I think if Arlena was still alive, she would say, "I'm Arlena, not Kimberly. Mom, why do you want me to be someone else?" A sequel of sorts happened with Kimberly. She was granted the divorce from Ernest and Regina because while they were her blood, they were strangers to her. She didn't want to be called Arlena and she wanted her life back with Bob and step mom, Darlena. Kimberly became very troubled, ran away from Bob and Darlena, and stayed with her birth family. She ended up married and had a son. She divorced her first husband. She also got married two more times and had 6 kids with different men. I found out Bob Mays died and I wonder how the Twigg family reacted to that! A baby switch is not funny and it should be prevented at all costs! If not, you end up with a confused kid and two families who want her!