A brother and sister were separated for more than seven decades before they were reunited. Last year, the two met owing to a social media message, and their first virtual meeting was memorable.
Lamar Hoke Jr. and his elder sister Connie Stanley had no idea how drastically their lives would alter once their mother died. At the time, the siblings who resided in St. Louis were split up.
Because their fathers were different, they spent the remainder of their lives growing up apart. The siblings had a strong desire to reunite, but it was difficult. When Stanley came upon her mother’s old letters, she made a useful find.
SHE WRAPPED A LETTER
Stanley’s mother had written to her Hoke’s father, who was based in Chicago. Stanley contacted the family to notify them that she had married and given one of her boys the name “Lamar.”
When Hoke read the letter, he was pleased and displayed it to everyone of his friends and relatives. Stanley’s brother, despite his delight, never responded.
THE SEARCH WAS CONTINUED BY SIBLINGS.
Stanley maintained his quest throughout the years, frequently looking through the Yellow Pages for Hoke’s name. Despite the fact that she had not had a miserable life, she stated:
“I could claim I had a wonderful life if my brother had been in it.”
Hoke’s life went on after that, and he formed his own family. To aid him in his hunt, his wife set up an Ancestry.com account for him. He was able to contact with many members of his family through the website, but not with his sister.
ON FACEBOOK, I FOUND HIM.
“It had been a sad thing that I sought for her, then I’d grow weary, and I’d quit,” Hoke said. Stanley’s search was similarly full of dead ends, until things changed one day.
She saw a Facebook page for a man named “Lamar Hoke Jr.” Stanley couldn’t believe his eyes and was apprehensive about approaching her after all these years.
THE MESSAGE THEY WERE EXPECTING
Stanley enlisted the assistance of her children. They let it go when Victoria sent a message to Hoke’s son. They had been waiting for months and had received no response. Then, in June 2020, they got the message they’d been expecting.
“It was like a dream,” Stanley added. They made their first phone call at the end of June. Following that, they set up a memorable video call. “We had our first Zoom Family gathering, and it was great!” wrote Juliet, Stanley’s daughter.
YET ANOTHER SIBLING GET-TOGETHER
After forty years, another family had a memorable reunion. Darryl Bell was taken aback in 2017 when his brother, Maitland, arrived at their local pub in Macclesfield, England. Maitland had relocated to Canada, and they hadn’t seen each other since.
The special gathering was organized by Bell’s daughter Louise, and her father described it as “simply amazing.” Before they began to make up for lost time, he thanked his daughter for making the preparations and gave his brother a warm embrace.