Aussie Man Meets Half-Sister For First Time After 66 Years Apart
LINCOLN (CBS13) — There was shock and disbelief after a phone call brought a brother and sister together after decades and continents apart.
Wednesday the pair talked about their emotional meeting 66 years in the making.
Hugs, tears and a lot of catching up. That's what these half-siblings, Susan Johnson and Peter Reid, were doing Wednesday night.
"Sixty-six years, so we've certainly got some time for some catching up," Reid said.
For more than six decades, more than 7,000 miles separated them before Peter finally got on a plane from Brisbane, Australia to Lincoln, California, meeting with his half-sister for the first time.
"We just hugged," Susan said. "It was so emotional."
But this family reunion wasn't easy.
"I knew I had a sister in the States," Peter said. "I tried on a number of occasions to try and track her down … and I'd gone down a blind alley and it's very frustrating."
Susan left on a ship with her mother from Sydney, Australia for San Francisco in 1942 when her parents split up. Her mom remarried and so did her father. He had two sons. One of them is Peter.
Peter, desperate to find his sister, had his daughter and son-in-law hit the Internet with just her maiden name and her birth date. But it was one key piece that cracked the case.
The ship's manifest had all passengers that departed from Sydney in 1946.
Susan's mother's name was on the manifest and listed her with a child, Susan. But the hunt still wasn't over.
It required a "fantastic bit of detective work because she's had four different surnames," Peter said. "To track her down to this house was unbelievable."
Finally, he found her and then he made the call to introduce himself after all these years.
"He said 'I'm your brother and I said 'You are kidding me," Susan said. "I just couldn't believe it."
