PETERSBURG, Va. -- It's a mystery an 88-year-old Tampa Bay woman is trying to solve for good.
"I've just had such a great life. I think about it a lot as I've gotten older. I think I dwell on it more," Yvonne said.
These days, she finds herself thinking and dwelling about the first week in May 1934.
"Well, when I was about three months old, I was left on a doorstep. This was in Petersburg, Virginia," Yvonne said.
The doorstep was 30 Fillmore Street in Petersburg, to be exact. It was the home of J.H. Andrews and his porch was where the mystery began.
The house sits directly across from Poplar Lawn Park.
A Progress-Index article from 1934 detailed her discovery.
When found, the baby was clothed in rather nice garments and was wearing a crocheted sack and matching cap. It was wrapped in a heavy blanket and in a carton shipping box.
Yvonne's husband Dale had the garments she was found in framed. They hang on her wall to this day.
"They called the police immediately and they came and picked me up and took me to the hospital," Yvonne recounted.
A short time later, Yvonne was adopted by Andy and Mary Ethel Houser who lived in Hopewell.
A search through the Polk City directory for Hopewell finds Yvonne's father running the Houser Market at 612 North 6th Street. The directory shows that the family home was located at 406 North 3rd Street.
"They had four boys and I think they had two that were left at that time and they were so good to me, wonderful parents," Yvonne said.
Yvonne attended Hopewell High School and was a member of the girl's basketball team.
In the mid-1950s, Yvonne headed back to Petersburg full of questions.
"I went and knocked on the door and this older man came to the door and I said, 'are you, Mr. Andrews?' And she said 'yes, I am.' I said, 'I was the baby that was left on your doorstep.' Well, he just went to pieces. He was so excited, he called everybody at the house, they all came," Yvonne said.
But the answers to the question of who her birth parents were wouldn't be found.
"I feel like, in my heart, I always thought it was an unwed mother," Yvonne said.
DNA hasn't led to any answers.
"I have done DNA so many times, the only thing they've ever come up with, the DNA, is they said that they think my last name was Potter and that I'm from some place like in Virginia Beach and that area over there," Yvonne said.
At 25, Yvonne left Virginia and moved to Florida where she got married and had twins.
"I mean, I could not have had a better life. My life, it's just been fantastic," Yvonne said.
While Yvonne is still looking for answers, she is content not knowing the full story.
"I don't regret it because I do believe it was God's will that I was left on that doorstep," Yvonne said.
Yvonne now has a large family of her own but still wonders if there are brothers and sisters from her birth parents who are still alive.
She has hope but no regrets if she doesn't find them. She still feels the love from the family who raised her.
