Family is reunited after tragedy

It's said that tragedy can bring families closer together. That was certainly the case with Kathy Hahn of Fort Scott -- it just took a while.

In December 2011, her son Kevin Thomason was killed in Kansas City. Figuring out he was a sibling, his brother and two sisters -- all put up for adoption by Hahn when they were small -- prompted the trio to search out their natural mother.

This past Mother's Day, Hahn, her three children and a passel of grandchildren came together at Shelter House No. 3 at Gunn Park, relieved, convivial, yet somewhat restrained owing to Thomason's passing.

Robert Botts of Parkville, Mo., Cathy Aguirre of Kansas City, Mo., and Kimberly Diego of Liberty, Mo., were all adopted by the same family in the early 1980s. Botts was adopted at age 2, Aguirre at 7 and Kimberly at 5.

Thomason was also taken in, but by a different family. At the time of his death by homicide, he was living in Leavenworth.

Hahn declined to elaborate on why she had put her children up for adoption, other than to say it was a hard time for her.

"I didn't have any choice but to do it," she said.

Diego saw the report of Thomason's death on the local news; then she and the remaining siblings, working together and with friends, found their mother just in time for Mother's Day. Hahn herself said she had been looking for her children as well.

With the loss of Thomason, Hahn said, she had hoped her family might finally be united.

"She might have lost one, but she just gained three," Aguirre said at the Fort Scott reunion.

Hahn said she is "very proud to have them back in my life. ... I'm going to be there for them from now on."