What we learned about Randall’s birth mother on This Is Us Season 5, Episode 6

3. Hai reunited with her three decades later

She’d get taken to the hospital, and it wouldn’t be long before the police showed up and arrested her for drug possession.

She pleaded guilty, and despite being a first-time offender, got sentenced to five years in prison. Due to overcrowding in Pittsburgh prisons, Laurel got sent to California.

In 1985, she’d get released and, with only enough money for a one-way bus ticket, return to New Orleans. Once there, she’d go to see Aunt Mae, and after getting cleaned up, tell her about the child she left behind, saying that she worried the child would grow up thinking she didn’t love him.

Aunt Mae responded by telling Laurel about her own personal tragedy and that if she didn’t let go of the guilt, it would strangle her. Eventually, Laurel began to heal despite feeling as though she forfeited the right to know her son.

She’d begin working at the farmer’s market, where, after more than five years, she’d see Hai once again. The two would not have a romantic reunion, however, as Hai was married with children.

For three decades, they’d exchanged waves and smiles from a distance. It was not until 2013 that the pair would reconnect when a widowed Hai visited Laurel one day, noticing her absence from the market. She would then tell Hai about her cancer diagnosis, and despite being given a grim projection, she would live an additional two years with Hai by her side every step of the way.

This Is Us returns on February 9th at 9/8c on NBC.