--- title: Dallas Adoption: 92-Year-Old Adopts 76-Year-Old description: A 92-year-old Dallas woman adopted her 76-year-old cousin after a relationship that has spanned more than six decades. canonical: https://time.com/3916063/adopts-daughter-elderly/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-10T15:27:23.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:20:58.463Z og:title: This 92-Year-Old Just Adopted a 76-Year-Old Daughter og:description: "My life had been a beautiful picture. But one piece was missing." og:url: https://time.com/3916063/adopts-daughter-elderly/ 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: This 92-Year-Old Just Adopted a 76-Year-Old Daughter twitter:description: "My life had been a beautiful picture. But one piece was missing." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # This 92-Year-Old Just Adopted a 76-Year-Old Daughter  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Jun 10, 2015 3:27 PM UTC  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Jun 10, 2015 3:27 PM UTC A 92-year-old Dallas woman adopted her 76-year-old cousin after a relationship that has spanned more than six decades, WFAA in Dallas [reported](http://www.wfaa.com/story/news/local/dallas-county/2015/06/10/92-year-old-dallas-mom-adopts-her-76-year-old-daughter/28777665/). Muriel Clayton began to care for Mary Smith, her younger cousin, after Smith’s father died decades ago. Smith’s mother was still living, but illness prevented her from caring for her daughter. Though Clayton wanted to ask Smith to formalize their relationship earlier, she waited until her biological mother had died. On Tuesday, the pair went to Dallas County Court and legally became mother and daughter. “I have worked jigsaw puzzles, and my life had been a beautiful picture. But one piece was missing, and that was Mary,” Clayton said. “And now I’ve got that piece in place. Officially!” \[[_WFAA_](http://www.wfaa.com/story/news/local/dallas-county/2015/06/10/92-year-old-dallas-mom-adopts-her-76-year-old-daughter/28777665/)\] _Read next:_ [_What I Learned About Family from Organizing the World’s Biggest Family Reunion_](http://time.com/3907347/what-i-learned-about-family-from-organizing-the-worlds-biggest-reunion/?iid=time%5Freadnext) [_Listen to the most important stories of the day._](http://time.com/newsletter/the-brief/autoplay/?xid=spl-fullbrief-article) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3916063/adopts-daughter-elderly/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3916063/adopts-daughter-elderly/"},"headline":"This 92-Year-Old Just Adopted a 76-Year-Old Daughter","datePublished":"2015-06-10T15:27:23.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:20:58.463Z","description":"\"I have worked jigsaw puzzles, and my life had been a beautiful picture. But one piece was missing\"","url":"https://time.com/3916063/adopts-daughter-elderly/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Family"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"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/3916063/adopts-daughter-elderly/","name":"This 92-Year-Old Just Adopted a 76-Year-Old Daughter"}}]}] ```