Forty-five years ago I was born in Australia. My father, an Italian chef, and I were separated not long after I was born in 1969, by a deep family rift.
Despite the fact that my parents were already engaged before I was conceived, he reluctantly left — after being verbally and physically threatened — and returned to America, where he was an immigrant.
He tried very hard to get my mother to follow him, but she wouldn’t go and thereafter he was married and had another family in the United States. I was so excited to learn I had siblings.
My twin brothers were born in 1972 and our sister arrived eight years later. I was not aware of them until I found my father when I was 20.
I journeyed to NYC in 1989 to meet them all, but unfortunately things didn’t work out (as they often don’t when other people get involved.) After only four days I left, returning to Australia with a broken heart.
Many years later I would speak to one of the twins and then lose contact. Then another large timeframe would elapse before I spoke to the other one ever so briefly. Then nothing! We just lost touch completely.
My last contact for quite some time with one of the twins was 15 years ago. Unfortunately, he lost my details and I figured I would never hear from them again. So with a heavy heart I closed that chapter on my life.
In all that time, the youngest twin searched for me online. He was exhausting all avenues. Until finally in December of 2012, he located me via LinkedIn. It would be another two weeks before I would find it on an old email address I no longer used and it was a miracle I saw it at all. Imagine my surprise!