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"Together we're on a mission to reunite the world one family at a time"© |
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Follow Up 3 REUNIONS 1 | REUNIONS 2 | REUNIONS 3
O BROTHER, THOU ART HERE!
Separated half-century ago, siblings are united
BY EILEEN SOLER
Special to The Herald
They walk, talk and laugh alike.
Their faces are nearly identical, from gray bushy eyebrows to
salt-and-pepper beards.
Two brothers who
never knew the other existed met eye to
eye for the first time, bonding like puzzle pieces in a perfect
hug at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
``What I'm feeling is indescribable,'' said Christopher Powell,
49, of Guerneville, Calif., seconds after stepping off an
airplane to embrace his newfound sibling, Richard P. Girard,
50, of Oakland Park.
``If this is possible, anything is possible,'' said Girard, his
eyes filling with tears.
The two men, born 11 months apart at Miami's Jackson
Memorial Hospital, were put up for adoption shortly after
Powell's birth in 1951, said Lynn-Marie Carty, director of
Reunitepeople.com who brought the brothers together Thursday
evening.
The boys grew up in separate families, reared
coincidentally
by fathers who were pilots stationed in Hawaii and then in
Southern California. They knew they were adopted but
neither had a hint of the other.
Carty, a former legal investigator from St. Petersburg whose
two-year-old company boasts 97 united families so far, said
Powell called the business two weeks ago in search of his
birth mother.
A two-day probe into hospital and adoption agency records
did not turn up the mother or father but gave substantial
clues to get started. In most adoption cases, Carty said,
such concrete data as names and forwarding addresses are
stricken from public records.
Carty's investigation, however, did reveal the Jan. 16, 1951,
birth date of a sibling.
Scrolling though Internet reunion sites, Carty found Girard,
born on the same date in the same hospital -- and also in
search of his birth mother. ``Everyone is findable, everyone
has a paper trail. You just have to be tenacious,'' Carty said.
``I get chills all over my body when I bring families
together.''
On July 25, Girard and Powell spoke via a four-hour
telephone conversation.
``We were both just so ecstatic,'' said Girard, a signmaker.
``I'm finally a big brother.''
Powell, a retired Ford Motor Credit agent, said he looks
forward to a close relationship with his brother. ``It will be
easy,'' Powell said. ``Rich and I are so much alike. I can tell
this is meant to be.''
Girard and Powell found many similarities in their
personalities -- they were rebellious teens, both are
smokers, they are private people but enjoy parties and their
signature tempers have mellowed with age. Both began
looking for their mother in 1989. Both hope their mother will
read newspaper accounts of their getting together and come
forward.
Anyone with information
can call Carty at 727-384-3463 or
e-mail
findthem@reunitepeople.com
(c) 2001 The Miami Herald and wire service sources. All Rights
Reserved.
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October 7, 2001
Dear Lynn-Marie,
After I lost my husband of almost 19
years in January of 2001, I knew my life would never he the
same. I had never felt more alone or scared in my life. Thank
goodness I was blessed with the most Wonderful of friends to see
me through that traumatic time.
It's funny in a way but the thing I
kept obsessing on the most was the fact that my obituary would
read "No known survivors". We had no children and I am the only
child of adoptive parents who are in there 80's and in failing
health. I really don't expect to have them around much longer
either. I had this sense that I truly would be all alone in the
world.
Then you, my dear friend, my angel,
saw or felt the need to intercede on my behalf and take rue
under your wing. You guided me towards an even greater blessing
with your diligence and heart-felt hard work. Your mission was
to calm my fear that I would not ever be alone in the world My
prayers and yours were answered.
I had always been slightly curious
about my biological family and not for the most common reason
which is usually medical background. I had mundane curiosities
such as where do I get my height from and where do I get my
combination of green eyes and blond hair and of course if I had
any half brothers or sisters. You worked long and hard through
mountains of paperwork to answer those and many more questions
for me.
Thanks to you I now can proudly claim
a full blooded, older sister and older brother. If people only
knew how many years as a child I had wished for one or the other
and now I have both!!! The feeling is truly indescribable. I
feel connected again to life. I also finally have the answer as
to what happened and why I was given up for adoption. As an
adult myself I know the things that we can face and it was a
wise choice on my biological parents to give me to the wonderful
family I have known all my life. They are and always will be my
mom and dad.
As for my biological siblings, they
are now a very important focus in my life. They have welcomed me
with open arms and that is worth it's weight in gold. I was
afraid they wouldn't want to get to know me or wouldn't like me
for whatever reason but that has been the furthest thing from
the truth. They are wonderful people with wonderful spouses and
even better, lots of wonderful children. I can now boast 10
nieces and nephews of my very own! No more fear of the "No known
survivors" obituary.
Keep up the good work at
Reunitepeoplecom. I have read some of the awe inspiring stories
of reunions that have taken place at the hands of your hard work
and diligence. You have a gift and a tenacity like no other and
there is no doubt in my mind that thousands of folks out there
will benefit from your kind and good-hearted spirit which is so
very much a part of you.
Good luck and god bless because you
are truly one of his angels.
Sincerely (oh, that almost sounds to
formal) with all my love,
Missy Malor
missymalor@aol.com Texarkana Man Reunites
With Daughter After 26 Years
Lost then found Then a photo he e-mailed, of himself in
Alaska holding a big fish, confirmed it. “He looks like his
sister. He has that same nose, the same smile. He asked me, ‘Do
you have any doubts?’ Maybe at first, I did. But not now; in my
heart, I don’t. There are too many similarities. He’s my son.” All these years, I’ve seen reunions on
shows,” she said. “And I thought, ‘Why isn’t that me? Why isn’t
anyone helping me?’” "Adopted life“
Gary Clark and his family walked into Shreveport Regional
Airport Sunday afternoon, full of anticipation. The Texarkana
man was just minutes away from meeting his long lost daughter,
Dana. Everyone in the group was wearing name
tags: "Grandmother", "Brother", "Cousin Nicole". The nametags
are needed because Dana is deaf from a childhood illness.
Word came that Dana's flight had landed. People began walking
out of the concourse. Gary waited and watched. "Is that her?,"
someone asked. "I don't know!," he replied. It was. At 4:45 pm,
Dana walked toward a family she's never really known. Her
grandmother couldn't wait and ran to hold the little girl she
last saw at just six
months old. And then, Dana and her father
embraced. Unfortunately, none of the people in the group know
sign language.
Grandmother Marie Clark pointed to her nametag to make sure Dana
knew who she was. "I mean, this a miracle, really, after 26
years," Dana's father said. Dana spent eight years trying to
find her Dad and recently enlisted the help of a
talk show which found him for her. Wanting to communicate to
-us- she wrote this brief message: "Its great to see Dad and
family." "I prayed and prayed to try to find her," Dana's
grandmother said. "I wondered and I prayed that she'd be alright
and her grandfather did too, and he died and never got to see
her." Dana will visit for two weeks. Until they can find someone
who knows sign language that can help, they plan to use pen and
paper to communicate.
Tuesday, February 10, 2004
‘I always knew you’d find me,’ son tells mom
By Nancy Montgomery, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Monday, January 19, 2004
ATSUGI NAVAL AIR FACILITY, Japan — She was a California girl
with auburn hair and blue-gray eyes that seemed to change color
with her moods. She was 15; it was 1968, and there was no
question that when she had the baby she was carrying, she’d give
him up for adoption. “It was a very shameful thing,” Denise
Dutton said. “There was never any discussion. There was no
choice. I would give this baby up, and that was it.”
Dutton married the baby’s father — literally the boy next door.
They had a daughter, and, years later, divorced. They didn’t
talk about baby “James,” whom Dutton named after her father who
died when she was 9. But she always thought of him, even after
remarrying. Fruitless searches.
A few years ago, Dutton contacted the adoption agency that
placed “James” and filed a form consenting to be contacted by
her son, in case he was searching for her. “I decided I would
put myself out there for him to find me. I had always been
hoping. But I didn’t want to intrude on him if he wasn’t
interested,” she said. But then, she began to think about trying
to find him. “Five years ago, as soon as I got my computer, the
first thing I did was go online,” said Dutton, 51.
She registered with an agency of more than a million people
looking for birth parents or their children. She called
television shows that featured reunions like the one she wanted
so much. She consulted a psychic. Nothing turned up. “Everything
was like a brick wall,” she said.
Then, in September, at her home near Atsugi, where her husband
is a civilian worker, she e-mailed a woman at ReunitePeople.com,
an Internet company that seemed to have great success finding
people. Some months and $1,850 later, she was on the phone with
her apparent son, a 35-year-old, divorced salesman who loves to
read, has traveled overseas and lives in Las Vegas. “I just
said, ‘Hi. I’m your birth mother,’” Dutton said. “He said, ‘I
always knew you’d find me.’”
There’s been no DNA test, but something almost as good, in
addition to the dates, names and places all matching up. “I
asked him what color his eyes were,” Dutton said. “He said
they’re blue-gray, and they seem to change color with what he
wears or his moods. Like mine. I call them ‘mood eyes.’
Showtime
Dutton flew off to California, husband in tow and other family
members in a tizzy, last Wednesday. Her ex-husband is unhappy,
she said; her daughter is stressed and her former in-laws, all
in Orange County, Calif., think she must be insane. Because, if
it all works out, Dutton will meet her son for the first time on
a taping of the Dr. Phil Show on Wednesday, her son’s 36th
birthday.
Dutton, a candid woman with a wry sense of humor who teaches
English to Japanese people in her home, said she wanted to share
her story, and encourage others like her to find their birth
children. Plus, she said, she wouldn’t mind a little pampering
from the show — a nice hotel, maybe a limo ride, possibly some
money.
Her ex-husband and daughter weren’t so thrilled with the idea of
going on the show, she said. Her apparent son, however, sounded
like his mother. “If someone wants to film me being reunited
with my birth mom, that’s fantastic,” David Garner said in a
phone interview.
Garner, who grew up with an adopted sister in Washington state,
seemed to be taking the mother-son reunion in stride. “The funny
thing about this whole thing is everybody I talk to seems to
want to sensationalize it,” Garner said. “My life’s been an
adventure, so this was kind of how things go. Sometimes, I feel
like I’m not shocked and surprised enough for everyone.”
Garner said that all he’d ever known about his birth mother was
that she was 15 when he was born. “I never felt a particular
emptiness,” he said. “I have a great family.”
Garner is one of an estimated 5 million to 8 million people in
the United States who’ve been adopted, according to the American
Adoption Congress in Washington, D.C., although statistics are
unreliable, because adoption records are scattered, incomplete
and lost, and court records are usually sealed and inaccessible.
Dutton’s husband, Rick, said he supported her quest, in part,
because he was adopted. “I know what it’s like,” he said.
Birth records began to be sealed in the 1940s, when social
workers and judges decided that secrecy would protect all
parties involved, according to the American Adoption Congress.
In the mid-1970s, it became more socially acceptable for people
involved in adoptions to seek out kin.Only six states — Alaska,
Alabama, Delaware, Oregon, Tennessee and Kansas — provide adult
adoptees with original birth certificates containing their
parents’ names. Other states provide “non-identifying
information,” such as age and occupation, and a few allow
adoptees to see who their parents were if consent has been
given.
Lynn-Marie Carty, of ReunitePeople.com, has managed to find
hundreds of long-lost relatives. “If we have a date of birth,
that helps a lot,” Carty said. “We try every trick in the book
until something works. Sometimes, information on the records is
purposely false. We love it when we crack those cases.”
Dutton mailed a figurine of an angel to Carty in thanks. “Since
I found my son,” she said, “everything I do is perfect. … I want
to be best of friends with him and be involved in his life,” she
said. But if that doesn’t happen, she added, that, too, will be
OK.
Dutton wasn’t the only one who’d always wondered and worried
about the baby James, and who was joyous when he was found.
“When I told my mother, she was so happy,” Dutton recalled. “She
said she always remembered leaving him at the adoption agency in
his little carrier, and she always thought it was her fault. So
this is a good thing. As far as I’m concerned, whatever happens
after this is a bonus.”
It began Friday
in front of film crews, photographers and a roomful of
teary-eyed onlookers. She said to
save her life and theirs, she sought help from a lawyer in
giving up the four youngest children for adoption. Between July
and October 1961, 3-year-old twins Roy and Rick, 2-year-old Ray
and 4-year-old Deborah Jean were adopted by three different
families. Davis asked
the attorney to ensure the children's first names remained the
same. She knew eventually she would look for them and thought it
would be easier to find them if they were using their given
names. On Nov. 3,
1961, with her two eldest daughters in tow, Davis left Chicago
and four of her children behind, for her parents" home in
Mississippi. "That was the best I could
do for them," she said. "I think they understand. If I had to do
it over again and circumstances were the same, I'd have to do
it, for their sake." Theresa
Williamson, the eldest, has few memories of those terrible days
in Chicago. She remembers babysitting younger siblings who
suddenly disappeared. Donna May,
the second eldest, remembers only the beatings she and her
siblings suffered at the hands of their father, who has been out
of their lives since the day they left. She grew up feeling that
parts of her were missing. "I have no
good memories," May said.
Sunday November 3, 2002
Separated Siblings, Mom Savor Revelry
BY: NATASHIA GREGOIRE
SO:
ngregoire@tampatrib.com
TREASURE ISLAND - For 41 years, Patsy Loper's heart
had been broken into six pieces. This weekend, the pieces came together for
the first time since 1961 during a remarkable family reunion.
The family's tale of how members found one another
is the stuff movies are made of.
In the summer of 1961 in Chicago, 21-year-old Patsy
Davis walked out on an abusive marriage with a broken jaw and
six scared children.
An Accidental Reunion
Back in Chicago, twins Rick and Roy Brewczynski
were raised by loving adoptive parents. They always knew they
were adopted, but they knew of no other blood siblings.
Rick said that when he was 17, he walked into a Spencer Gifts store in a Chicago mall and he bumped into a teenager who was his mirror image - more so than his twin brother. He had found his youngest brother, Ray.
"The very next day
we got together," Rick said. "We were rebellious teenagers then.
It was a very tense time."
It would be 20 years before the twins and Ray would
find their birth mother. Rick's wife, Terri Brewczynski,
launched an Internet search and they heard from someone who knew
Patsy Davis, now Patsy Loper, remarried and widowed twice.
For more than
20 years, Loper had been searching for her children. But sealed
records led her to numerous dead ends.
"It almost killed me for 41 years," Loper said.
Then, in September 1999, just as Loper was about to
give up hope, her boys called.
"I think I lost my mind that day," Loper said. "I
couldn't sit down. As soon as I sat down, I'd get up and walk
the floor."
On Nov. 3, 1999, exactly 38 years after she left Chicago, Loper and her two eldest daughters were reunited with Rick and met his wife for the first time.
"We had a
six-day party," Rick said. "It was such a great time."
It was during that meeting Rick would learn that
for his mother and sisters, the celebration was incomplete. They
were still missing one child, a redhead named Deborah Jean.
Friday's celebration at Gators Cafe & Saloon in Treasure Island was all about Deborah Jean. The last missing piece of the family's puzzle had been found.
After the initial reunion with their mother and siblings, Rick and Terri launched a massive Internet search for Deborah Jean Davis.
More than 100
investigators would try to find the little redheaded girl. None
succeeded.
Then this year, St. Petersburg private investigator
Lynne Marie Carty of Reunitepeople.com came across the family's
pleas online and decided to take the case for free.
Carty learned
that Deborah Jean was adopted by a family in Brooklyn and her
name had been changed.
Carty mailed letters to every woman in Brooklyn who
was born Jan. 14, 1957. The letters included copies of the last
pictures the family had of Deborah Jean and a plea to call Carty
if anyone thought she was the missing girl.
"My Name Is Deborah Jean Davis'
Two days
later, Carty got a telephone message: "My name is Deborah Jean
Davis. ... I have a family looking for me."
DNA tests conducted by the Tampa company dnatesting.com proved
the caller, 45-year-old Penny Lewis, indeed was Deborah Jean
Davis. "They didn't forget me," Lewis said through tears Friday
night. "All my life I wondered, "Does anyone wonder what
happened to Deborah Jean?" Now I know."
Accompanied by her daughter and adopted mother, Lewis met her
biological family for the first time Friday. They shared endless
hugs and kisses and stared into faces that resemble one another.
It was a scene that brought silence to a noisy bar and made
grown men wipe away tears. Lewis presented Loper 41 roses, one
for each year they were apart.
Together Again
"I feel like a whole person," Loper said, with five
of her six children encircling her. The youngest, Ray, could not
make the reunion. It was also the first time since the adoption
that Loper met Roy face to face. They had been in contact on the
phone since 1999.
"It's hard to describe, almost disbelief," Roy said. "I didn't know about most of these people until a couple years ago."
Terri added: "Now's a time to start building new memories."
The owners of Gators donated their restaurant and
an expansive beachfront home for the family's reunion at the
request of Carty. The siblings say they will continue to get
acquainted with one another until they leave town this evening.
A television crew with Paramount Pictures is filming the reunion for "Life's Moments," to air on NBC and the Hallmark Channel.
"I'm so overwhelmed," Penny said. "I look at these faces and they are mine. There are no words to describe this."
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