0:00:02 > 0:00:04Families can be driven apart for all manner of reasons.
0:00:04 > 0:00:07Oh, I had no information at all about where my mum went.
0:00:07 > 0:00:10And when you do lose touch with your loved ones...
0:00:10 > 0:00:12You don't know who you are, where have you come from.
0:00:12 > 0:00:15..finding them can take a lifetime...
0:00:15 > 0:00:19I might have a brother that's still living here.
0:00:19 > 0:00:23..especially when they could be anywhere - at home or abroad.
0:00:23 > 0:00:26And that's where the family finders come in.
0:00:26 > 0:00:28From international organisations...
0:00:28 > 0:00:32Hi, it's the Salvation Army Family Tracing Service.
0:00:32 > 0:00:34..to genealogy detective agencies...
0:00:34 > 0:00:38For someone to say that it's changed their life, it makes coming to work,
0:00:38 > 0:00:40you know, really, really special.
0:00:40 > 0:00:42..and dedicated one-man bands.
0:00:42 > 0:00:46It's a matter of how much effort you really want to put into it,
0:00:46 > 0:00:48how badly you want to solve the problem.
0:00:48 > 0:00:52They hunt through history to bring families back together again.
0:00:52 > 0:00:55Finding new family is wonderful.
0:00:55 > 0:00:59In this series, we follow the work of the family finders.
0:00:59 > 0:01:04Suddenly, you get one spark of breakthrough and there they are.
0:01:04 > 0:01:06Learning the tricks they use
0:01:06 > 0:01:08to track missing relatives through time.
0:01:08 > 0:01:13I didn't think I'd ever find sisters but I have.
0:01:13 > 0:01:17And meeting the people whose lives they change along the way.
0:01:17 > 0:01:20I've been waiting to meet John my whole life.
0:01:20 > 0:01:23Since we've met, I feel part of a family again.
0:01:23 > 0:01:25You've just completed my life for me.
0:01:31 > 0:01:35In the UK, thousands of people embark on searches
0:01:35 > 0:01:38for long-lost relatives every year.
0:01:38 > 0:01:41No two searches are ever the same.
0:01:41 > 0:01:43Sometimes, one new piece of information
0:01:43 > 0:01:46can crack a case wide open.
0:01:46 > 0:01:51And other times, one single spelling mistake can hamper a hunt forever.
0:01:52 > 0:01:55Today, we follow Jeannie and her daughter, Sarah,
0:01:55 > 0:02:00whose whole family mystery unravelled with a well-judged hunch.
0:02:00 > 0:02:03After 25 years of searching,
0:02:03 > 0:02:10the euphoria that I felt is just indescribable.
0:02:10 > 0:02:13And we meet Graham, who almost gave up
0:02:13 > 0:02:15the convoluted search for his sister.
0:02:15 > 0:02:18Perhaps I'd been raising my hopes far too high
0:02:18 > 0:02:20and that it turns out that...
0:02:20 > 0:02:23somebody somewhere along the line has got it wrong.
0:02:29 > 0:02:33Jeannie Taplin was born in the Midlands in 1942,
0:02:33 > 0:02:35and was brought up by her mother.
0:02:36 > 0:02:41My mother had told me that my father had died during the war.
0:02:41 > 0:02:44And I think I accepted that.
0:02:45 > 0:02:47When I was about ten,
0:02:47 > 0:02:51I think I must have been asking my mother questions
0:02:51 > 0:02:57and she eventually decided that it was the right time to tell me
0:02:58 > 0:03:01that my father was still alive
0:03:01 > 0:03:07and that a gentleman who I'd known as Uncle Steve,
0:03:07 > 0:03:10wasn't an uncle at all but was my actual father.
0:03:12 > 0:03:15Ten-year-old Jeannie discovered her father, Uncle Steve,
0:03:15 > 0:03:20was, in fact, called Alexander and originally from Finland.
0:03:20 > 0:03:24He had arrived in England in 1917 and adopted the name Steve.
0:03:26 > 0:03:29Jeannie didn't imagine she would ever see him again.
0:03:29 > 0:03:31Four years past, then one day,
0:03:31 > 0:03:35Jeannie's mother announced that her father was waiting outside.
0:03:36 > 0:03:40As I walked out of the house towards the car,
0:03:40 > 0:03:43I really didn't want to be doing it.
0:03:43 > 0:03:44I didn't...
0:03:45 > 0:03:48He was a stranger to me.
0:03:49 > 0:03:52I didn't know what we would talk about.
0:03:54 > 0:03:55After their first meeting,
0:03:55 > 0:03:59Jeannie and her father stayed in touch on and off for many years
0:03:59 > 0:04:02until one day she stopped receiving his letters.
0:04:04 > 0:04:10I became annoyed with him because I had written and hadn't had a reply
0:04:10 > 0:04:15for quite some time, longer than he would usually have left it.
0:04:15 > 0:04:21But I got a reply from his third wife
0:04:21 > 0:04:26saying that he'd died six months previously.
0:04:28 > 0:04:30Life carried on for Jeannie
0:04:30 > 0:04:34but something her mother had once told her kept playing on her mind.
0:04:35 > 0:04:40She mentioned that some years previously he'd been married
0:04:40 > 0:04:42and had a daughter.
0:04:44 > 0:04:49Jeannie had an older half-sister but knew absolutely nothing about her.
0:04:49 > 0:04:51As the years passed,
0:04:51 > 0:04:55she found herself thinking more about this mystery sibling.
0:04:56 > 0:05:01Luckily for Jeannie, she had an amateur genealogist on hand to help,
0:05:01 > 0:05:02her daughter, Sarah.
0:05:03 > 0:05:08My interest in genealogy began when I did a school project
0:05:08 > 0:05:13at the age of 13 and we were asked to compile a basic family tree.
0:05:13 > 0:05:17My great aunt came to stay with us
0:05:17 > 0:05:20and she had heaps of information
0:05:20 > 0:05:22on the maternal side.
0:05:22 > 0:05:26The hobby very much turned into an obsession.
0:05:28 > 0:05:33Sarah started the search by looking for records of her grandfather, Alexander.
0:05:33 > 0:05:36Sarah learnt that after arriving in England,
0:05:36 > 0:05:39he was naturalised and became a British citizen.
0:05:39 > 0:05:40Along with his full name,
0:05:40 > 0:05:44that should have left a paper trail Sarah could follow.
0:05:44 > 0:05:48I was always told that his name was Alexander Leonard Roden,
0:05:48 > 0:05:51which was his naturalised name.
0:05:52 > 0:05:56But Sarah's search didn't produce any results.
0:05:56 > 0:06:00Her grandfather and his other daughter remained a mystery.
0:06:00 > 0:06:04In fact, it took 25 years before Sarah found the key
0:06:04 > 0:06:07that unlocked this family puzzle.
0:06:07 > 0:06:11I was on the National Archives website, Discovery.
0:06:11 > 0:06:16I thought, "I'll give my grandfather's name a go again."
0:06:16 > 0:06:20So I put in his name, all three names,
0:06:20 > 0:06:24including the middle name and nothing came up.
0:06:24 > 0:06:27So I took out the middle name,
0:06:27 > 0:06:30and suddenly his naturalisation certificate
0:06:30 > 0:06:32and the application for naturalisation came up.
0:06:34 > 0:06:37The euphoria that I felt
0:06:37 > 0:06:41is just indescribable.
0:06:41 > 0:06:44After 25 years of searching,
0:06:44 > 0:06:47to finally have that piece of paper in front of me
0:06:47 > 0:06:50was just indescribable.
0:06:50 > 0:06:54Sarah phoned me and said, "I've found him."
0:06:56 > 0:06:58And she said,
0:06:58 > 0:07:01"I know what his name is."
0:07:01 > 0:07:04I couldn't believe it that,
0:07:04 > 0:07:10at last, it was all coming together.
0:07:10 > 0:07:13Sarah's searches also confirmed Jeannie's suspicions.
0:07:13 > 0:07:17Alexander had had another baby, 18 years before Jeannie,
0:07:17 > 0:07:20a daughter called Muriel.
0:07:21 > 0:07:25I phoned my mother again and I said, "You did have an older sister.
0:07:25 > 0:07:29"She would have been 90 this year."
0:07:29 > 0:07:33I never for a minute thought that she was still alive.
0:07:33 > 0:07:38Of course, 90 isn't old these days but it never crossed my mind.
0:07:38 > 0:07:40But there were more revelations to come
0:07:40 > 0:07:44and the journey would take them to the other side of the world.
0:07:49 > 0:07:52In Essex, 66-year-old Graham Holloway
0:07:52 > 0:07:56also had a long and challenging search for a sibling.
0:07:56 > 0:08:00His story began with a difficult and unsettled childhood.
0:08:00 > 0:08:03As far as my birth mother and father are concerned,
0:08:03 > 0:08:07I have no real recollection of them at all.
0:08:07 > 0:08:10It was deemed by Southend Social Services
0:08:10 > 0:08:14that it was not a safe place for us to be with them
0:08:14 > 0:08:19and consequently, it was determined that we should be taken into care.
0:08:20 > 0:08:23In 1951, at the age of two,
0:08:23 > 0:08:29Graham and his older sister, Lynda, were sent to live in a children's home in Southend.
0:08:29 > 0:08:31We didn't have very much contact at all
0:08:31 > 0:08:36because boys and girls in those days were very much kept apart anyway.
0:08:36 > 0:08:39Especially in an institution such as a children's home.
0:08:39 > 0:08:41During their time at the care home,
0:08:41 > 0:08:45Graham and his sister Lynda were fostered by several families,
0:08:45 > 0:08:47sometimes alone, sometimes together.
0:08:49 > 0:08:51Lynda and I, initially,
0:08:51 > 0:08:56they tried to foster us out together but ultimately it didn't work
0:08:56 > 0:08:59because, A, we didn't always get on together,
0:08:59 > 0:09:02brothers and sisters don't always, do they?
0:09:02 > 0:09:07And plus they had other children as well, and they, on some occasions,
0:09:07 > 0:09:11thought that our behaviour was disruptive to their family.
0:09:13 > 0:09:16Eventually, Lynda was permanently fostered
0:09:16 > 0:09:18and Graham never saw her again.
0:09:19 > 0:09:22I cannot remember how old I was or how old she was,
0:09:22 > 0:09:25but all of a sudden she was no longer there.
0:09:25 > 0:09:27It really was quite tough.
0:09:28 > 0:09:31Finally Graham also found a permanent home.
0:09:31 > 0:09:35At the age of ten, he was officially adopted by a young couple
0:09:35 > 0:09:37who had been fostering him, Robert and Joan Holloway.
0:09:39 > 0:09:42It was a very, very happy home with the Holloways.
0:09:42 > 0:09:44Very happy.
0:09:44 > 0:09:46I'm sorry they're gone.
0:09:48 > 0:09:50Joan, my mother,
0:09:50 > 0:09:54had had five miscarriages, so a child to her was everything.
0:09:57 > 0:10:00And that's why she was the way she was with me.
0:10:02 > 0:10:04She thought, "I'm lucky to have a child."
0:10:06 > 0:10:08And I was lucky to have a mother.
0:10:08 > 0:10:10And father.
0:10:11 > 0:10:14Graham thrived in his new life.
0:10:14 > 0:10:19Eventually, he left home, trained as a teacher and started a family.
0:10:19 > 0:10:22But he never forgot about his sister, Lynda.
0:10:22 > 0:10:26I'd always wondered about Lynda and her circumstances,
0:10:26 > 0:10:29what became of her,
0:10:29 > 0:10:35but I was not really going to do anything to search for her
0:10:35 > 0:10:38whilst Mr and Mrs Holloway were still around,
0:10:38 > 0:10:41so I wasn't offending.
0:10:42 > 0:10:44It wasn't until six years ago,
0:10:44 > 0:10:47almost six decades since he had last seen her,
0:10:47 > 0:10:50that Graham finally began the search for his sister.
0:10:51 > 0:10:56I spent the best part of two years, possibly even more,
0:10:56 > 0:10:59searching for the correct Lynda
0:10:59 > 0:11:03and there was always some impediment
0:11:03 > 0:11:05or something wrong with the information I was getting
0:11:05 > 0:11:10in that the name I had found was incorrectly spelt,
0:11:10 > 0:11:12the middle name was incorrect
0:11:12 > 0:11:16or the year of birth was incorrect or the place of birth was incorrect.
0:11:16 > 0:11:22I was looking at it on a day-to-day basis for a couple of hours per day
0:11:22 > 0:11:25but I kept coming up to dead ends.
0:11:25 > 0:11:27There would always be something that was not quite right.
0:11:27 > 0:11:30There was always something that didn't tie in.
0:11:30 > 0:11:33Ready to call it all off, he made one last attempt.
0:11:33 > 0:11:37This time he brought in a professional family-finding company.
0:11:38 > 0:11:42They discovered that Lynda had changed her surname.
0:11:42 > 0:11:44It's quite common to see somebody
0:11:44 > 0:11:47taking on the surname of a foster parent or perhaps a step-parent.
0:11:47 > 0:11:49That's quite common to see.
0:11:49 > 0:11:52For instance, in this case, we found she'd changed her name to Lynda Green.
0:11:52 > 0:11:54We then looked for a marriage record.
0:11:54 > 0:11:57Now, this was quite interesting because we did find one
0:11:57 > 0:12:01but Lynda's name at birth was spelt with a Y in Lynda
0:12:01 > 0:12:03but the marriage record we found on the index
0:12:03 > 0:12:06has indicated that it was spelt with an I.
0:12:06 > 0:12:10But we continued to look at that person and what we found was it was definitely the right person
0:12:10 > 0:12:13but it would have been an error on the marriage indexes,
0:12:13 > 0:12:16which is quite a common thing that people should look out for
0:12:16 > 0:12:21when they're searching because quite often there are errors and mistakes on these records.
0:12:21 > 0:12:25And the search didn't get any easier.
0:12:25 > 0:12:28Dave discovered Lynda had married twice again,
0:12:28 > 0:12:30which meant two more name changes.
0:12:30 > 0:12:32I think the breakthrough moment probably came
0:12:32 > 0:12:36when we found somebody living in Shoeburyness in Essex,
0:12:36 > 0:12:40which is where we'd known Lynda to last be,
0:12:40 > 0:12:43and she had the first name Lynda spelt with a Y.
0:12:43 > 0:12:47She had the middle name of Jane and the exact same date of birth.
0:12:47 > 0:12:50That really... At that point, we were fairly confident
0:12:50 > 0:12:51that she was the right person.
0:12:52 > 0:12:56When I got the call to say that they had actually located
0:12:56 > 0:12:59a last known address, I could not believe it.
0:12:59 > 0:13:02I thought, "After all the time I've spent doing it
0:13:02 > 0:13:04"and yet they've done it in a couple of weeks."
0:13:06 > 0:13:07Without any delay,
0:13:07 > 0:13:11I sent a letter off to her and gave her all the details that I had.
0:13:13 > 0:13:18But after a search that had already led him down so many dead ends,
0:13:18 > 0:13:22Graham was cautious about his chances of success.
0:13:22 > 0:13:24I was, obviously, in some sort of trepidation
0:13:24 > 0:13:28in that perhaps I've been raising my hopes far too high
0:13:28 > 0:13:32and that it turns out that somebody somewhere along the line
0:13:32 > 0:13:33has got it wrong.
0:13:33 > 0:13:38It's the wrong address or the information is not valid
0:13:38 > 0:13:43or that somebody didn't want to know about it.
0:13:43 > 0:13:44You know, it's all a long time ago.
0:13:44 > 0:13:46So what. It's all over and done with.
0:13:46 > 0:13:48Tear it up. Throw it away.
0:13:48 > 0:13:53All Graham's years of searching now rested on one letter.
0:14:00 > 0:14:03120 miles away in Southampton,
0:14:03 > 0:14:05Sarah Walker had succeeded
0:14:05 > 0:14:09in her 25-year quest to find her mother's blood relatives.
0:14:09 > 0:14:15The culmination of half my life's work is just wonderful.
0:14:16 > 0:14:19But Sarah didn't think her mum's 90-year-old half sister, Muriel,
0:14:19 > 0:14:21would still be alive.
0:14:22 > 0:14:25Until she received a message out of the blue.
0:14:26 > 0:14:28I was updating records on Ancestry
0:14:28 > 0:14:32and was contacted completely out of the blue
0:14:32 > 0:14:38by an ex-relative of my aunt who announced that she was still alive
0:14:38 > 0:14:42and that she talked to her on a fairly regular basis.
0:14:42 > 0:14:47Jeannie's half-sister, Muriel, was alive and living in Australia.
0:14:47 > 0:14:50Sarah couldn't wait to tell her mum.
0:14:50 > 0:14:52She then called me and said,
0:14:52 > 0:14:56"Wait for this, I've found your sister."
0:15:05 > 0:15:06And, erm...
0:15:08 > 0:15:13And she said that she lives in Australia
0:15:13 > 0:15:16and she's been married three times
0:15:16 > 0:15:18and has seven children.
0:15:19 > 0:15:21It was a lot to take in.
0:15:22 > 0:15:24You know, it's incredible.
0:15:24 > 0:15:27Sarah e-mailed Muriel immediately.
0:15:27 > 0:15:30To finally make contact
0:15:30 > 0:15:36after so many years of searching for information on her father,
0:15:36 > 0:15:41my mother's father, and knowing that she finally existed...
0:15:41 > 0:15:43just wonderful.
0:15:45 > 0:15:48Just a day later and Sarah received a phone call
0:15:48 > 0:15:50from one of Muriel's sons, Franz.
0:15:52 > 0:15:56Franz and his brother Ricky are two of Muriel's seven children.
0:15:56 > 0:16:00They stayed in the UK when their mother moved to Australia.
0:16:01 > 0:16:03Mother was like...
0:16:03 > 0:16:07- a mother hen. She... - Mother was very protective.
0:16:07 > 0:16:08Very protective.
0:16:10 > 0:16:13Their mother, Muriel, had been abandoned by her own mother
0:16:13 > 0:16:14as a child.
0:16:14 > 0:16:17Her mother walked out one day and said goodbye to her.
0:16:17 > 0:16:21She told her to go next door to a neighbour
0:16:21 > 0:16:24and that is the last time that she ever saw or heard from her mother.
0:16:24 > 0:16:28Shortly afterwards, her father placed her in foster care.
0:16:28 > 0:16:34Nobody sort of wanting her, not a lot of love given to her.
0:16:34 > 0:16:39I think Mother's past shaped her future
0:16:39 > 0:16:42of how she dealt with everything in her life.
0:16:43 > 0:16:45Out of her hard times,
0:16:45 > 0:16:48she's tried to give us good times and she's done a good job.
0:16:49 > 0:16:53Muriel grew up in the UK with her foster family.
0:16:53 > 0:16:58She emigrated to Australia in 1978 where she has lived ever since.
0:16:58 > 0:17:01She wasn't aware she had a younger half-sister
0:17:01 > 0:17:04until Sarah got in touch out of the blue.
0:17:05 > 0:17:06She was so excited.
0:17:06 > 0:17:08She was like a child.
0:17:08 > 0:17:11She was bubbling with excitement...
0:17:13 > 0:17:17..to find her sister at her age - I mean, she was then 90, I think -
0:17:17 > 0:17:19to have lived that long and not known.
0:17:19 > 0:17:24We even lived a few miles apart at one time in Birmingham
0:17:24 > 0:17:26and not known about each other.
0:17:26 > 0:17:30As Muriel was halfway round the world in Australia,
0:17:30 > 0:17:32Sarah and Jeannie didn't think
0:17:32 > 0:17:34they would ever meet her face-to-face.
0:17:34 > 0:17:38But, then, Muriel got back in touch to say she was visiting the UK
0:17:38 > 0:17:41and wanted to meet her new-found family.
0:17:41 > 0:17:45When I heard my aunt arrive,
0:17:45 > 0:17:48I went straight out and gave her a big hug.
0:17:48 > 0:17:52- Oh, dear.- It's wonderful, isn't it? - I know - absolutely wonderful.
0:17:52 > 0:17:55- And amazing. - 'I felt such a huge bond with her.'
0:17:56 > 0:17:59Somebody was filming us
0:17:59 > 0:18:04and then I brought her through and they met for the first time
0:18:04 > 0:18:06and there were tears all round.
0:18:06 > 0:18:11It was as though we'd known each other for a long time.
0:18:11 > 0:18:16I hadn't thought that meeting a sister could be...
0:18:18 > 0:18:20..quite so emotional.
0:18:20 > 0:18:25I couldn't believe the similarities visually
0:18:25 > 0:18:27and I think the fact that
0:18:27 > 0:18:31they developed a sisterly bond now is amazing.
0:18:31 > 0:18:34In the end, I had to ask them to stop hugging each other
0:18:34 > 0:18:36because it made me cry every time.
0:18:36 > 0:18:38That day when Jeannie and Mum met
0:18:38 > 0:18:42must have been one of the most memorable days of her life.
0:18:43 > 0:18:47It was wonderful and we talked nonstop.
0:18:48 > 0:18:54That made me even...wish even more that I'd known her.
0:18:54 > 0:18:56You know, when I was about 19 or so.
0:18:59 > 0:19:03We would have had some fun, I'm sure we would.
0:19:03 > 0:19:06Now the two sisters have found each other,
0:19:06 > 0:19:09both have discovered a family they never knew they had
0:19:09 > 0:19:12and they stay in regular contact via the internet.
0:19:15 > 0:19:20Today, the two UK sides of the family are reuniting again.
0:19:20 > 0:19:22Muriel's sons Franz and Ricky
0:19:22 > 0:19:25are meeting their new-found aunt and cousin
0:19:25 > 0:19:27to find out more about the grandfather
0:19:27 > 0:19:29they never knew, Alexander.
0:19:29 > 0:19:33- Well!- Hello.- Welcome.
0:19:33 > 0:19:36- Thank you.- Oh, it's good to see you.
0:19:36 > 0:19:38- And you, darling, are you all right? - Oh, yes.
0:19:38 > 0:19:40- Sarah, hello.- Hello.
0:19:40 > 0:19:43Oh, yes, I'm fine.
0:19:43 > 0:19:46Sarah's research has uncovered a wealth of information
0:19:46 > 0:19:49about her, Franz and Ricky's grandfather,
0:19:49 > 0:19:52including his request to become a British citizen.
0:19:52 > 0:19:58So, this is the application for a naturalisation certificate
0:19:58 > 0:20:03and we've got information here about exactly where he was born.
0:20:03 > 0:20:06He sailed from Murmansk, North Russia.
0:20:06 > 0:20:08He was an Ordinary Seaman.
0:20:08 > 0:20:10And if only I'd realised
0:20:10 > 0:20:14exactly what information this would have given me,
0:20:14 > 0:20:17I would have found you all a lot sooner.
0:20:17 > 0:20:20- FRANZ:- A lot earlier. Well, it's fascinating.
0:20:20 > 0:20:22It's things we never knew about.
0:20:22 > 0:20:26Mainly because we didn't know we had a grandad at all.
0:20:26 > 0:20:31There's one other family member keen to join in today's reunion.
0:20:31 > 0:20:33- MURIEL:- Lovely to see you, Jeannie.
0:20:33 > 0:20:36Oh, it's great to see you, Muriel.
0:20:36 > 0:20:39We should have known each other years ago.
0:20:39 > 0:20:42- Oh, 30 years ago at least.- Yes.
0:20:42 > 0:20:46- That's right.- Yes. Yes. It should have been a long time ago.
0:20:46 > 0:20:49We're making up for lost time, though, meeting up.
0:20:49 > 0:20:55- Yes.- It wonderful that we're able to talk to each other like this.
0:20:55 > 0:21:00For me to have my two nephews here when five years ago,
0:21:00 > 0:21:02I didn't know they existed.
0:21:02 > 0:21:06This has been beyond my widest dreams.
0:21:06 > 0:21:11To be able to reunite my mother and her sister
0:21:11 > 0:21:13has just been unbelievable.
0:21:13 > 0:21:18I am very thankful to Sarah for doing the work she's done
0:21:18 > 0:21:22and finding out as much as she has done and uniting us all.
0:21:23 > 0:21:28We've had nothing but positive things come to us
0:21:28 > 0:21:30over the past four years.
0:21:30 > 0:21:33Every single member of their family
0:21:33 > 0:21:38has embraced us as their family.
0:21:39 > 0:21:41And it's been wonderful.
0:21:41 > 0:21:42See you soon.
0:21:42 > 0:21:44- Bye.- Nice to see you.
0:21:53 > 0:21:58Graham Holloway was trying to solve his own family conundrum.
0:21:58 > 0:22:01He hadn't seen his older sister, Lynda,
0:22:01 > 0:22:03since they were children living in care.
0:22:04 > 0:22:07A family-finding company had tracked down an address for Lynda,
0:22:07 > 0:22:10and Graham had written a letter.
0:22:10 > 0:22:13Little did he know the address was out of date.
0:22:13 > 0:22:15But this time, luck was on Graham's side.
0:22:17 > 0:22:21Out of the blue, I got a message from my daughter
0:22:21 > 0:22:26to say that a letter had arrived at her father's house,
0:22:26 > 0:22:28addressed to me,
0:22:29 > 0:22:33"Dear Lynda, Following several years of trying to locate you,
0:22:33 > 0:22:37"I believe I may at last have done so.
0:22:37 > 0:22:42"Do you recall being taken into care as was I in 1951.
0:22:42 > 0:22:45"Can you confirm that these details ring a bell?
0:22:45 > 0:22:49"I apologise if I imposed but earnestly believe
0:22:49 > 0:22:53"that I may finally have made contact with the right person.
0:22:53 > 0:22:55"Please confirm this ASAP.
0:22:55 > 0:22:58"Regards for the time being, Graham."
0:22:59 > 0:23:02And I thought, "What shall I do here?
0:23:02 > 0:23:06And I just took the bull by the horns and just dialled the number.
0:23:06 > 0:23:07And he answered.
0:23:07 > 0:23:09And I just said,
0:23:09 > 0:23:12"Graham, this is Lynda."
0:23:12 > 0:23:13It was incredible.
0:23:13 > 0:23:15Absolutely incredible.
0:23:15 > 0:23:19That after 63 years or thereabouts,
0:23:19 > 0:23:21we actually caught up with each other.
0:23:21 > 0:23:24I hadn't spoken to Graham for 60 years.
0:23:25 > 0:23:27At least 60 years.
0:23:29 > 0:23:33He did say that he wanted to see me
0:23:33 > 0:23:35and what was the best way to do it.
0:23:35 > 0:23:37I said, "Great."
0:23:37 > 0:23:40I said, "I'll be down to Southend in a shake of a lamb's tail."
0:23:40 > 0:23:42And she said, "That won't do you any good." I said, "Why not?"
0:23:42 > 0:23:44She said, "I don't live in Southend.
0:23:44 > 0:23:46"I don't live in Shoeburyness."
0:23:46 > 0:23:48I said, "Where do you live?" She said, "Cyprus."
0:23:51 > 0:23:55Graham had finally tracked down his big sister,
0:23:55 > 0:23:5960 years on and 2,000 miles away from where they last saw each other.
0:24:01 > 0:24:03Having discovered that I had the right person,
0:24:03 > 0:24:06having discovered that she lived in Cyprus,
0:24:06 > 0:24:09I told her that I'd be over there as soon as possible
0:24:09 > 0:24:12in order to visit her and which I did
0:24:12 > 0:24:14because I was there within a week.
0:24:15 > 0:24:18As we walked through the baggage collection
0:24:18 > 0:24:22and through to the arrivals lounge, as it were,
0:24:22 > 0:24:24we saw each other.
0:24:24 > 0:24:26Lyn was already on her feet
0:24:26 > 0:24:29cos she'd spotted me from, you know, yards away.
0:24:29 > 0:24:33And I just ran to him...
0:24:34 > 0:24:36..and threw my arms round him.
0:24:36 > 0:24:38He was crying, I was crying.
0:24:39 > 0:24:42- Very emotional.- Floods of tears.
0:24:42 > 0:24:43All over the place.
0:24:43 > 0:24:4660 years is a long time
0:24:46 > 0:24:50but you never forget that there is another member of your family.
0:24:50 > 0:24:52And it was so emotional.
0:24:53 > 0:24:55I've never known anything like it before. It's incredible.
0:24:58 > 0:25:00And still is.
0:25:01 > 0:25:06It's been two and a half years since Lynda and Graham were first reunited.
0:25:06 > 0:25:07But with Lynda in Cyprus,
0:25:07 > 0:25:10they can't get together as often as they'd like.
0:25:11 > 0:25:14So they've planned a special trip to the hometown where they lost touch
0:25:14 > 0:25:16over 60 years ago.
0:25:17 > 0:25:19I do feel really nervous today.
0:25:20 > 0:25:25A bit like the first time I saw him, to be honest.
0:25:25 > 0:25:27Quite emotional.
0:25:27 > 0:25:30And we've still got a lot of catching up to do.
0:25:49 > 0:25:51I can't believe it.
0:25:51 > 0:25:53I cannot believe it.
0:25:55 > 0:25:58- What are we going to find to talk about then?- Oh, everything.
0:26:02 > 0:26:05Remarkably, these two siblings both lived in Southend
0:26:05 > 0:26:09for many years of their lives, not knowing the other was still there.
0:26:10 > 0:26:13So today brings a chance to make up for lost time
0:26:13 > 0:26:15and share their memories of the town.
0:26:15 > 0:26:18I used to think that was France over there when I was a little girl.
0:26:18 > 0:26:20Yeah, so did I.
0:26:20 > 0:26:22I'd go, "Oh, let's go to France."
0:26:23 > 0:26:26Here you are, Graham. This is where I used to work.
0:26:27 > 0:26:30- You're joking. - No. I used to work here.
0:26:30 > 0:26:33For heaven's sake, I used to drink in the pub down there.
0:26:33 > 0:26:35We must have walked passed each other dozens of times.
0:26:35 > 0:26:36Dozens.
0:26:38 > 0:26:41Lynda's been tracking down their records
0:26:41 > 0:26:45and it's the first time Graham has seen their fostering paperwork.
0:26:45 > 0:26:49There's a few little things in here that are quite interesting.
0:26:51 > 0:26:53The fact that the two of us being together...
0:26:53 > 0:26:56- Yeah.- ..wasn't working out very well.- Hmm.
0:26:57 > 0:27:02And, basically, that I was stopping your chance of having a good home.
0:27:02 > 0:27:08- Huh.- So, they decided to leave you there and take me back to the home.
0:27:08 > 0:27:09Did they, indeed?
0:27:09 > 0:27:12At which time you were quite happily playing in the garden
0:27:12 > 0:27:14with your toys.
0:27:14 > 0:27:16Had you been you aware of any of this proposal at all?
0:27:16 > 0:27:19No. It would appear that I was...
0:27:20 > 0:27:22..the main culprit in our being separated
0:27:22 > 0:27:25from what I've read from these notes.
0:27:25 > 0:27:27See, it says here that I have outbreaks of temper,
0:27:27 > 0:27:29which apparently I still do.
0:27:29 > 0:27:32SHE LAUGHS
0:27:32 > 0:27:34I got through. I got by.
0:27:34 > 0:27:35You got through. You got by.
0:27:35 > 0:27:38And at the end of the day, that's the important thing.
0:27:38 > 0:27:43Having my sister back in my life after a long, long time
0:27:43 > 0:27:48has just been one of the most fantastic experiences of my life.
0:27:48 > 0:27:52I feel like I now have the brother that I've not had for 60 years
0:27:52 > 0:27:57and there's still lots we can talk about and lots of memories
0:27:57 > 0:27:59and lots for the future.
0:27:59 > 0:28:02I'm really proud to have you as a sister.
0:28:02 > 0:28:04Oh, thank you.