Brother and sister meet after six decades
Eddie had been adopted even before Edith was born, and they never met
HAVING never met, and separated from each other through adoptions, a local brother and sister clung to each other last week at the end of a 30-year search.
It’s been an emotional roller coaster ride for Eddie Pratt (68) and Edith Joubert (60).
Tears streamed from their eyes as the siblings were united after tireless efforts made by Eddie’s daughters to track down his half-sister finally succeeded.
Eddie had been adopted even before Edith was born, and they never met.
Both grew up and lived in Durban for most of their schooling years and were never able to find each other because of the lack of technology at the time.
Eddie, a resident of Empangeni, knew all along he had a sister because welfare officials had told him so.
However, he never knew how to find her and had been desperately trying to do so since the early 70s.
‘I knew somewhere in the world I had a sister, but I didn’t ever think we would meet,’ said Eddie.
Meanwhile Edith thought her brother had been taken overseas after he was adopted.
‘My step-sister told me that he was living in England. I was under the impression he was there all these years.’
According to Eddie’s daughter Chantal McNally, the whole process of tracking down her aunt took only four days – and much to their overwhelming surprise they found that Edith lived in Richards Bay.
The journey started when one of Eddie’s daughters uploaded a photo of his father’s family on Facebook.
It was in connection with a heritage project that Eddie’s granddaughter was working on.
A conversation about the photo ensued online before his niece in England inboxed his daughter and they began chatting.
Eddie’s daughter informed her cousin that her father did not know about his birth parents.
His niece, who is affiliated to websites which allow one to trace family history, took her uncle’s full name and birth date and in one day she tracked his family history back to 1792.
In this, Eddie’s full name appeared as well as that of his sister.
According to Chantal, that was the turning point in tracking down her aunt.
‘That was on a Wednesday, and by that Saturday my cousin sent me a picture of Edith she had found on Facebook.
‘I asked my cousin where she (Edith) lived and she told me Richards Bay.
‘I was taken aback!’ said Chantal, who at the time did not want to involve her friends in the process so she decided to inbox Edith herself.
A few phone calls later and Chantal was able to give Eddie the great news.
The siblings met at his daughter’s home in Empangeni two weeks ago and no-one knew what to expect.
Although Eddie and Edith were now ‘strangers’, both agreed that on meeting it felt like they had known each other for years.
While sharing happy tears, they ‘caught up’ quickly and spoke about their lives leading up to that moment.
According to Eddie and Edith, their reuniting is the start of a new journey in life.
A family lunch and time to reminisce over old photographs are all on the cards, but for now they are simply content in having found one another.
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