In 1986, Ashton was born in Vancouver & given up for adoption shortly after. As a child, she knew nothing about her origins except that her favourite teddy bear was gifted to her by her Quebecois biological mother. She held fastly onto this memento & the ensuing fascination about her heritage. 

After three & a half decades of unanswered questions, Ashton found Trouvay. She promptly took an Ancestry DNA test, shared her results & the researchers began digging. Through analyzing her DNA cousin matches & reverse engineering her family tree, Trouvay identified the most probable biological mother.

Ashton searched the woman’s name on Facebook & sent off a message. She sent a message explaining who she was & within the hour she received the reply, “I’m your mom! I would love to meet you. I have been looking for you for over 20 years.” Surprisingly, the birth mom was still living within a 30-minute drive of her after all these years.

In September 2022, Ashton & her mom finally reunited. In their first communications back & forth, the biological mother asked if she still had the teddy bear she had gifted her daughter nearly 36 years ago. Tears were shed by both parties when Ashton pulled the stuffed animal out of her bag.