After her father passed away and her mother got ill, Mary Smith's older cousin Muriel Clayton took her in and raised her like her own. Smith grew up with Clayton's children - and they all thought of her as nothing less than their sister.
Clayton always had a secret dream to adopt Smith and make her a legal part of the family, but she never did out of respect for Smith's biological mother.
But love has no expiration date. This year, sixty years after Clayton took Smith in, the two made it official: At the age of 92, Clayton formally adopted the 76-year-old Smith.
"I have worked jigsaw puzzles, and my life had been a beautiful picture. But one piece was missing, and that was Mary," Clayton said to WFAA, "And now I've got that piece in place. Officially!"
(Photo: Marie Saavedra/WFAA)