A BROTHER and sister who were separated for 70 years have regaled the nation with their story when they called into a radio show to recount the moment they were reunited.
Patricia Grant, from Baldoyle in Dublin, and her brother Christopher Smith called into RTÉ's Liveline where they told the astonishing story of their separation, their separate lives and their eventual reunification.
Patricia told listeners how she learned she had a brother eight years ago, completely out of the blue, when she received a phone call from Chris's daughter asking her 'Are you Patricia and did you come from Kells?'" because, as she said, "you have a brother who's 75 and I'm his daughter".
"I just wanted to see him immediately," Patricia said, and the two organised to meet three days later.
"He lives in Ballymun, and I'm just in Baldoyle," Patricia told Liveline. "Imagine, he was only 15 minutes across the road for 50-odd years. We must've crossed paths."
The recognition, when they met, was instant.
"I'm the image of him. When I met him and he came down my driveway I thought it was my mother coming in," Patricia laughed, remembering.
Her brother Christopher, now 82 years old, described the moment as "a bit of a shock" but was delighted to get to know his sister: "She is a lovely lady and has a lovely family".
Christopher had always believed himself to be an orphan, and was raised by his aunt and uncle until the age of six, when he was sent to an industrial school until the age of 16 for truancy.
"I got ten years for not going to school," he told the show, admitting that he had a hard upbringing and that his aunt could only visit once or twice throughout the years because "she was very poor".
After finishing school, Christopher went on to join the army, and served for 28 years.
Patricia's mother had given birth to him at the age of 15 and had "kept the secret all her life", going on to get married at 17 and have six more children with her husband.
Patricia and Christopher believe they share the same mother and father, and that Christopher was given up as their mother was unmarried-- and there was an 11-year age gap between their parents.
Their mother never knew what had happened to Christopher.
"It would have killed her to know what had happened to him," Patricia admitted on air.
"She told no one. My mother's best friend, who she and all of us were very close to, always said that she always felt that my mother was hiding a secret, but she never told her either."
Incredibly, Patricia named her own first born son Christopher, decades before the two would ever meet.
"I called my first son Christopher, but it was after my husband's father," she explained.
"I always wondered what my mother felt when she found out that I called him Christopher."
To listen to Patricia and Christopher's incredible true story in their own words, you can listen to the Liveline section here.
