Story highlights
               Man, 41, reunites with his biological mother in Chile after four decades

                His mother was told that her baby died shortly after birth, but he was instead adopted by U.S. couple. Chile has thousands of cases of illegal adoptions from the 1970s and 1980s under the dictatorship.

Santiago, Chile (CNN)

It was a hug kept on hold for more than 41 years. The hug of a mother and son whose lives were abruptly separated four decades ago.

Nelly Reyes had been waiting for hours in the international arrivals lounge at Arturo Merino Benitez International Airport in Santiago, holding a hand-made red poster board sign that said “Lovingly waiting for Travis, your mother Nelly and family.” A granddaughter in her early 20s and a 10-year-old grandson keep her company.

On the other side of the terminal, going through immigration and customs, Travis Tolliver was anxious and nervous. Up until the last minute, mainly because of a language barrier, he didn’t know if anybody would show up to greet him.

When he finally came out of the terminal, no words were needed. They rushed to each other’s arms and held on for a long hug. Few relatives knew the real story.

Tolliver had tears of joy. “I don’t know how I feel. It’s crazy! I never thought this could happen,” he said.

Reyes, 61, could barely talk. “I’m going to hug him every day. I love him so much,” she said.

The emotions released in that hug at the airport were the culmination of four decades of heartbreak, lies, deception, criminal acts and an injustice that separated mother and son at birth.

Stolen at birth

The newborn baby ended up living thousands of miles away, being raised in Tacoma, Washington, by a couple who had no knowledge of what had happened, while his biological mother cried and desperately tried to find her son.

Tolliver says he always knew he was adopted. What the 41-year-old supervisor at an imports distribution center didn’t know was that he was stolen as a baby in his native Chile, only hours after his birth.

He hopes that knowing the truth about his past will now allow him to overcome a psychological trauma he has suffered for as long as he can remember. He says he has “abandonment issues.”

“You know, I wasn’t given up willingly like I thought for all these years, so that makes my heart feel wonderful; but it’s just coming to terms with that. This whole thing still seems unreal to me,” Tolliver said.

Reyes says she had a normal pregnancy with no medical issues. The mother of six children, including Tolliver, says she gave birth to a healthy baby boy at 4 p.m. on November 15, 1973. She was 19.

But her joy quickly turned to sadness when a nurse told the baby was born with a heart condition and was unlikely to survive.

“Hours later they told me he had died,” Reyes said. Despite her multiple pleas, Reyes says she was never shown a body and was never given a death certificate.