tonight, a father's urgent search for answers. >> ready? >> to find the mother he never knew. >> you know, she was a ghost. >> with time running out. >> oh, my body's fighting hard. >> why his bloodline could be a lifeline. byron pitts on an emotional five-month journey with an investigative genealogist. >> i started getting text messages from rob's birth mom. >> the shocking discovery. >> wow. >> the powerful reunion. >> there she is. >> this special edition of "nightline," "finding mom," will be right back.

"nightline," "finding mom," continues. byron pitts reporting. >> reporter: you're looking at a man who loves his daughter. >> grab it. >> reporter: his family. his life. >> ready? >> reporter: it's a life filled with secrets. rob martin is now on a quest to find the birth family he never knew. >> for my daughter's sake. i wanted to give her a foothold in something. i never had any of that. no anchor in anything. >> reporter: he could be running out of time. >> my body's fighting hard. >> reporter: he's battling

leukemia. >> i've had fevers on and off for five days. >> reporter: and may need a bone marrow transplant. >> i love you. >> i love you. >> reporter: rob's search for his bloodline could prove to be a lifeline. tonight we go on a five-month journey to find the birth mother he's spent a lifetime searching for. >> she was a ghost. you know, there was no one for me. >> a ghost. i've heard a lot of descriptions of parents, of mothers, but never a ghost. >> well, she's someone who's in my head that i couldn't touch. >> reporter: it all started in may 2017, when investigative genealogist pam slaton bedding a pleading e-mail from a friend of the martins. >> i'm writing to you because they're currently overwhelmed with aggressive cancer treatment. when someone's desperately ill you immediately make this a priority and jump in. >> reporter: pam reaches out to rob's wife jackie to tell her she'd take on rob's case pro

bo bono. >> she was so kind. she was like, give me all the information. >> reporter: but rob has little information for pam to start with. his adoptive parents took him under their care when he was a baby. >> i remember when i was younger i did ask my mom about my birth mom and her answer was, "i'm your mom, why do you want to know about her?" >> reporter: when he was in his 20s both his adoptive parents and adoptive brother died. in the span of two years, all the family he's ever known, gone. that would be crushing for me. >> i was depressed for years. years. literally years. >> reporter: it wasn't until the birth of his own daughter, aurelia, now 3, rob first decided he'd try to find his biological mother. what information did you find out on your own? >> i got the nonidentifying adoption records from the state. >> this is it? >> that's it. found out my mother was catholic and 16. that's all it says.

>> what was this information like for you? as limited as it is. is it comforting? is it reassuring? is it frustrating? >> before i got this, you know, she was a ghost. that's solid information that my mother existed. >> reporter: a glimmer of hope, but nothing that brought him any closer to finding his birth mother. it was just four months after that that cancer would strike. acute myeloleukemia. he's immediately admitted to the hospital for a 30-day stay and begins chemotherapy. >> i thought he was going to die. he couldn't even stand. he started losing his hair. this morning his doctor told us that he's going to need a bone marrow transplant. we were told that it's better with family members. >> i don't like to ask for anything. it feels like greed. >> brother, you're not asking for a $50 loan. >> i know. >> you're asking potentially to save your life. >> from someone i've never met, and who made the conscious decision to, you know -- you know, remove me from her life.

>> reporter: then just a month after his initial prognosis, finally some good news. >> i'm in remission. >> yay! >> less than 30 days from my admission. i was in full remission. which was -- even now it's like, you know -- it's a gift. it was a gift. >> moves you still. >> yeah, yeah. yeah. >> reporter: but his doctor says there's still about a 1 in 3 chance the cancer could return. and a bone marrow transplant isn't off the table. rob still has to undergo four more rounds of chemo to complete his treatment. but rob's greatest fear isn't for himself, it's for his daughter. >> mwah! >> you don't have memory of 2 years old. >> oh, i love you. >> my fear is her not knowing me. me being, you know -- kind of washed away like a sand castle.

>> reporter: with no time to waste, pam intensifies her search. focusing first on finding his original birth name. >> when you are born, you are given a birth name. it's your original name. once the adoption takes place and you're legally adopted, your birth certificate is amended. >> reporter: rob's amended birth certificate reveals he was born in queens, new york. using that information along with his birth mom's age, pam uncovers his original last name, garza. >> what i immediately started to do was to try and comprise a list of all female garzas who would be roughly 16 years old at the time rob was born. i've basically got as far as i could. >> reporter: next she pores through his ancestry.com dna results, searching for any leads that could whittle down her short list. >> you had a pretty close match that i immediately honed in on. >> reporter: a match that seems to be related to other garzas. >> i knew that once i was able

to contact her, that his case was going to start to unravel. >> hey, how are you? i know this is weird, but i'm a professional genealogist. >> reporter: pam is able to coax roe into naming all her known siblings. >> wow, okay. >> one person that she had said to me over the phone was deborah. and the alarm bells went off because deborah garza was on my short list of potential birth mothers for rob. >> i'm pretty sure that rob's case is solved. i'm just afraid about, you know, making that phone call, because i'm going to be really upset if his birth mother is not open to contact. >> reporter: but when pam calls deborah, she gets hung up on. >> that next morning i started getting text messages from rob's birth mom. i would like to know more about what you're looking for. i'm not an advocate of dropping information through a text message, but i had no choice, so

i wrote back, i'm helping someone who is adopted, he was born in 1972. and then it was amazing. the complete tone of the text messages changed. >> i had a son in 1972. i had to give up for adoption. i think about him every day. >> reporter: pregnant at 16, deborah garza says her mother made her hide her pregnancy, in shame. she delivered the baby via c-section. >> they completely knocked me out. so i wouldn't see the baby when the baby was born. i guess it was a lawyer who came in with my mother. told me to sign this paper, sign this paper, sign this paper. asked him, what is it? don't worry, just sign these papers. my mother told me, sign them. so i signed the papers. >> reporter: those papers

terminated her parental rights. >> i never got to see him. i was told, get on with your life, you're still young, you'll have other kids. how? i was a mother. no matter what, i was a mother. >> reporter: being an unwed mother was a huge stigma at the time. >> not only were they treated as though it was a shameful experience, but then they weren't able to grieve. you're losing your child, essentially. >> reporter: coming up, a mother and son prepare themselves. >> i don't know how i'm going to handle this phone call. >> reporter: for a conversation they never thought would happen. >> deborah? >> yes? crohn's symptoms following you everywhere? it's time to take back control with stelara®. for adults with moderately to severely active crohn's disease, stelara® works differently. studies showed relief and remission with dosing every 8 weeks. woman: stelara® may lower the ability

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this special edition of "nightline" continues. >> turn left to merge onto teconic state parkway north -- >> i'm walking into someone's life and deliveringiv etional m >> reporter: investigative genealogist pam slaton is on her way to rob martin, an don'tee and leukemia patient who's been searching for his birth mother for years without success. >> your biggest fears about opening that door? >> rejection again. i don't know if she's ever looked for me, i don't know if she ever followed me. she made that decision not to have me in her life. but it would be great, i'd love to have a mother. we will see, i guess. i didn't think i'd be this anxious. pam? >> we finally meet. >> finally, good to meet you. >> how are you? how are you feeling? >> good, good, i feel great.

>> you look good. >> thank you very much. >> reporter: pam walks rob through what she found. >> first things first. your name at birth was garza. >> garza, okay. >> nice to meet you, mr. garza. >> reporter: she reveals the identity of his birth mother. >> deborah garza. >> wow, deborah garza. >> was 16. when you were born. she absolutely did not want to give you up. okay? let me let you get a breath. >> whew. >> she wants you do know she loves you very much. >> wow. wow. >> here's the other thing. she wants to talk to you tonight.

>> oh. >> i didn't give her any information about you. she doesn't know what you've been going through with the leukemia. i didn't want her to think that, you know, you were searching for her for that reason. >> i don't want to, you know, come back in, the first thing i do is start asking her for stuff. >> reporter: pam gives him his birth mother's phone number and heads out. >> all right, enjoy. so long. >> pretty heavy. every night -- i don't know how to feel about it, to be quite honest. it's weird. i mean, finding out that she exists. yeah, my head is like -- >> reporter: the idea of speaking to a biological family member for the first time is nerve-racking for any adoptee. but rob has another hurdle to overcome, how to break the news to his birth mother that he's sick. >> i don't know how i'm going to handle this phone call. >> reporter: in virginia beach, deborah anxiously awaits rob's phone call, surrounded by rob's

two half siblings, mandy and j.r., and their children. >> you ready? >> reporter: an hour after pam leaves, with his wife jackie by his side, rob finally makes the call. >> hello? >> hi. yeah. um -- deborah? >> yes? >> this is -- uh -- it's rob. your -- >> your name is rob? >> yeah, my -- yeah. rob. rob martin. >> martin. >> yeah. >> wow. >> yeah. it's great to hear your voice, actually. it's very strange. >> yeah. >> i never expected this day to come. >> i never did either. i always dreamed of this. always. i never forgot you. >> that's -- that's amazing to hear. >> i didn't know anything about you.

i didn't know where you were. i didn't know who adopted you. >> i heard -- >> i didn't see you after you were born. >> aiy. >> who's your mom? >> jacqueline martin, she was a nurse, actually, at the hospital. >> so she knew my mama. >> reporter: rob and deborah piece together that their mothers both worked at the same hospital and must have arranged for the birth and adoption to all happen under their control. then rob decides to share what he's been so nervous about telling to his birth family. >> i do want to tell you something. i'm battling leukemia right now. i'm in remission. i don't want you to think that i searched you out for anything. but to know where i came from and for my daughter to know where she came from. if you look me up and you see me being sick, i don't want you to think that it's, you know, because i want bone marrow or anything. >> you needed it, i would give it.

are you okay, though? >> he's got one more month. >> one more month of chemo. i'm in remission, i went into remission fast. >> reporter: rob's newfound family offering that lifeline if he ever in additioned it. they promised to meet after he finishes his cancer treatment. >> this is one of the greatest days of my life, i want you do know that. >> this is the best day of my life, let me tell you. i can't wait to see your face now. >> oh my god. i'm so happy for you. >> i was literally like ripped from her body and given away to strangers. my mother had answers for me. and her mother had answers for her. and both of them chose to take it to the grave with them. we both got denied any information. so it's almost like we've had the same existence for -- about each other for the last 45 years. which is heavy.

>> reporter: a week later -- >> got in? >> yeah. i'm anxious. >> reporter: rob is getting what he hopes will be his last chemo treatment. >> now we're running. >> that marks the end of five months right there. that slow drip. >> i'm going to disconnect it. >> thank you so much. >> yay! >> reporter: the next month -- >> who are we going to go see? >> uncle rob. >> reporter: deborah and her family have come up from virginia beach to meet rob for the first time. >> just want to see him. i'm this close. i'm excited. can't wait. >> how are you feeling about today? >> i don't know, i mean -- i'm pretty nervous about the whole interaction. the initial interaction. meeting someone, a person for the first time, who's blood, it's new.

definitely >> my heart is pumping. this is nerve-racking. >> want to go meet your family? there she is. >> oh my god. >> that's grandma! >> hi! hi. >> hi. >> oh my god. >> wow. >> reporter: in this life there are moments with feelings so deep, emotions so raw, there are no words. >> i've been waiting for this 45 years. >> i never thought it was going to happen. >> i always knew it was going to happen one day. i never gave up hope. >> are you going to touch him the whole time you're here? >> yes, i am. >> it seems to me there was a point where both of you thought

the other wouldn't want to see the other. >> i did want him. i was told, just forget, move on, you'll get over it, you'll have more kids. >> do you ever get over it? >> no, never get over it. now. now i'm over it. oh, now, yeah. >> reporter: the siblings piece together, they actually all grew up in the same neighborhood in new york city. >> this is a big, complete puzzle right now. >> there's no way we did not pass each other a million times. >> we did. >> there's no possible way. >> basically grew up in the same streets and everything. >>o what now?er wl togeer >> now he's got a big family. >> yeah. >> now we have -- it's more trips planned. >> definitely, yeah. >> reporter: certainly there are regrets, what-ifs, and the sweet unanswerable question -- what truly comes next?

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we've been told that deborah and rob are now two peas in a pod. in fact, just last month rob and his two new siblings celebrated their birthdays together, for the very first time. thank you for watching "nightline." and as always, our "nightline" facebook page. thanks for the company, america. good night.