--- title: Man Who Saved Newborn Baby Goes to Her High School Graduation description: Man who saved an abandoned newborn baby gets to see her graduate from high school canonical: https://time.com/108892/man-who-rescued-abandoned-newborn-surprises-her-at-high-school-graduation/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-05-22T14:56:06.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:09:55.419Z og:title: Man Who Rescued Abandoned Newborn Surprises Her at High School Graduation og:description: Is someone cutting onions? og:url: https://time.com/108892/man-who-rescued-abandoned-newborn-surprises-her-at-high-school-graduation/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Man Who Rescued Abandoned Newborn Surprises Her at High School Graduation twitter:description: Is someone cutting onions? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Man Who Rescued Abandoned Newborn Surprises Her at High School Graduation  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer May 22, 2014 2:56 PM UTC  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer May 22, 2014 2:56 PM UTC A man who rescued a baby girl who was abandoned in a cemetery 18 years ago recently surprised her at her Illinois high school graduation, 14 News [reports.](http://www.14news.com/story/25582134/gibson-co-man-saves-abandoned-newborn-reunites-at-her-high-school-graduation) Skyler James just graduated from Charleston High School in Charleston, Illinois, and is college-bound, but 18 years ago, Charlie Heflin found her as a newborn, whimpering in a Champagne, Illinois, cemetery, covered in blood, with an umbilical cord still attached, after an anonymous woman told 911 dispatchers there was a baby there. He handed the baby over to paramedics, and she was adopted five days later by Bonnie and Greg James, who tracked down Heflin a few weeks ago through the local fire department and invited him to Skyler’s high school graduation ceremony and party. It’s the latest touching surprise reunion that has made headlines this graduation season, from the sailor who showed up to his daughter’s fifth grade graduation in Blue Springs, Missouri, to the Army Reserve Captain stationed in Afghanistan who [surprised](https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152122723433937&set=a.10150823501978937.396316.102471088936&type=1) his daughter on stage during her engineering school graduation at Columbia University. Man Who Saved Newborn Baby Goes to Her High School Graduation ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/108892/man-who-rescued-abandoned-newborn-surprises-her-at-high-school-graduation/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/108892/man-who-rescued-abandoned-newborn-surprises-her-at-high-school-graduation/"},"headline":"Man Who Rescued Abandoned Newborn Surprises Her at High School Graduation","datePublished":"2014-05-22T14:56:06.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:09:55.419Z","description":"Is someone cutting onions?","url":"https://time.com/108892/man-who-rescued-abandoned-newborn-surprises-her-at-high-school-graduation/","keywords":["Newsfeed","nation"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia B. Waxman","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/108892/man-who-rescued-abandoned-newborn-surprises-her-at-high-school-graduation/","name":"Man Who Rescued Abandoned Newborn Surprises Her at High School Graduation"}}]}] ```