A stuffed bear named Beary has traveled with Tara Welch through nearly five decades of her life, surviving a chaotic childhood and every hardship that came after. Now Welch is trying to track down the Mesa, Arizona foster family who gave it to her back in 1979, hoping to finally say thank you.
Welch, who now lives in California, was one of three siblings taken from Ohio to Arizona by their father in 1978, according to FOX 10 Phoenix. Welch said her father kept the three children for about six months before police became involved and he was arrested. She is the middle child of the three siblings.
After the arrest, Welch and her siblings were separated and placed in different foster homes, the station reports. Welch spent only a few days with the Mesa family, who lived in the Royal Palms Village neighborhood in the spring of 1979, before moving on from their care.
A Small Gift That Outlasted a Hard Childhood
Brief as that stay was, it left a lasting mark. When Welch left the family's care, they gave her a parting gift: a stuffed bear she named Beary. She said the bear has stayed with her ever since, through every chapter of her life. Welch said Beary “has remained with me through my entire childhood, through my entire adulthood,” supporting her through difficult stretches along the way, per the same report.
Welch also recalled that she and her brother attended a school owned by Virginia Mohler, a name that may hold a clue to the family she's trying to find.
Who Is Virginia Mohler?
Mohler's own biography fills in some of her background. Born in Lancaster, Ohio, in 1948, she later moved to Arizona after marrying her high school sweetheart, Jess Mohler, according to her author website. She spent decades in Arizona classrooms, teaching students from kindergarten through high school, with the final 35 years of her career devoted to kindergarten, according to the Desert Foothills Book Festival.
Mohler retired in June 2020 after 53 years of teaching, the book festival's biography states. She has since turned to writing, publishing her first children's book, “Hector Saves the Day,” in April 2019, and continuing to write children's stories alongside history and humor for adult readers, per her website.
Hoping for a Reunion After Nearly 47 Years
For Welch, the search is less about piecing together a mystery and more about closing a loop that has stayed open since childhood. She hopes to reconnect with her former foster family to thank them, a gesture she says reflects something simple but enduring: that one small act of kindness can have a lasting impact. The identities and current whereabouts of the Mesa family remain unknown, and the details of Welch's search end where the original report leaves off.
Research on sibling placement in foster care suggests the kind of separation Welch described can shape a child's experience in measurable ways. A study published by the National Institutes of Health found that while sibling placement was not consistently linked to outcomes across most models, children placed together reported feeling more supported by their foster parents than those placed apart. For children who had been in care for a shorter time, staying with siblings was also tied to feeling closer to caregivers and liking their living situation more, the research found.
Welch's story remains, at its heart, a small one: a few days in a Mesa home, a bear handed over as a child left once again, and decades spent wondering who to thank. Whether that family can still be found is unclear, but for Welch, the bear itself has already done its job.
