The pair met at a Stroke Foundation gathering in Dunedin attended by more than 70 people.
Ms Adamson, who now lives in California, is visiting her family in Dunedin for the first time since her brainstem stroke in 1995, which left her with less than one in a million chance of survival.
Initially, she was "locked in", able to hear, but not able to move other than to blink, and even that was not easy.
Thirteen years later, she is a motivational speaker and author of a book about her experience, Paralyzed but not Powerless.
She has a weak left side and wears a brace on her left leg, but emphasised to the audience that recovery was about concentrating on small achievements.
Some members of her family, including her parents, June and Robin Adamson, and her twin sister, Lynn, helped her to illustrate to the audience how to overcome difficulty when she asked them to try peeling a banana with one hand.
Mr and Mrs Adamson said it had been emotional seeing their daughter again.
Mrs Adamson had not seen her since she was in intensive care after the stroke and Mr Adamson had not seen her since her last visit in 1991.
