A Fife man has found the twin brother and sister he hasn’t seen in 40 years thanks to The Courier and a big-hearted Perthshire couple.
Earlier this month (link), Roy Thomson asked readers for help to trace the pair he last saw when they were 11-month-olds called Ian and Lorna, just after the death of their mother Joyce.
Happily Sheila and George Bruce, the parents of the twins they adopted in the 1960s, spotted the story.
Sheila called daughter Cathy Roy’s long-lost sister Lorna and ensured a happy ending for Cathy, twin Ian and the big brother they didn’t really know existed.
”My mum and dad didn’t even know if there were others in the family they didn’t tell families that back then but they had always wondered,” said Cathy, who was delighted her parents ”who I love to bits” had set the wheels in motion.
When the call went in to Ian, who lives in Fort William, ”my wife had to scrape me off the roof” he said.
At home in Kelty, Roy said: ”Sheila phoned Cathy and asked if she’d seen the paper and when she said no she said: ‘I think you need to’. I cannot thank her enough for what she did.
”They sound like the most amazing couple and I have so much respect for them.”
Roy admitted he has cried more in the last few days than he has in his life.
He said: ”It would have been okay for me just to know they have had a good life but this is just amazing.”
Roy’s family were torn apart after the death of his mother when he was nine, leaving him with a single photo of her and a memory of pushing his brother and sister in a pram around their Kelty cul de sac.
Initially the twins and Roy’s younger brother Paul were sent to a St Andrews clinic while Roy stayed with a family friend.
Paul and Roy later lived with a family friend and the twins were put up for adoption.
Roy began searching for them in his teens but had no luck until the story appeared in The Courier.
Cathy and Ian were soon in touch by email and phone with Roy and within days they had arranged to meet and start to fill in the blanks caused by over 40 years apart.
Sheila said: ”It was just the three of them, the first visit. Roy and Cathy were crying and Ian was in a daze.”
Roy said: ”There is an amazing connection there.”
Ian said he had traced his mother’s grave and while he was visiting with flowers he would return to Kelty. He would probably have had to pass Roy’s door to visit the family’s original home.
By coincidence both Roy and Ian are gardeners and even studied at Elmwood College at the same time, but their paths never crossed.
Cathy, laughingly referring to a family chin, also has a connection in that the middle names she gave her children are the same as those of Roy’s grandchildren, named by his daughter Lorna.
With so much catching up to do, Roy has already been to visit Cathy and her family and will be off this week to see Ian again.
Cathy said: ”It is amazing it has happened and we all like each other. Ian and I are part of a big family anyway and it is nice to be adding more to it.
”I feel really sorry for Roy we don’t remember anything, but he did, and I’m sorry he had to go through all that.”
Roy is now looking forward to the coming years with his family and another reunion with Paul, who lives in St Albans, is in the offing.
Roy said: ”It is like having new friends, but in this case the new friends are family. The good thing about finding each other at the age we are is that we do not have to worry about the past it is all about getting to know each other now.
”We will forget what we have missed and grab what we have with both hands.”