EVER since she was adopted as a little girl, Audrey Cassidy had wondered about the family she never knew.
Now, at the age of 80, she has finally met her brother John – and seen her first ever photograph of her biological mother – at an emotional meeting in York yesterday.
Audrey, of Heworth, was adopted at the age of ten and moved to York with her new family, but had always wanted to know whether she had any siblings. After a trip to meet her son in Edinburgh, she found the answer.
Audrey last met her mother, Margery Dinsley, from Harrogate, at the age of nine, with a man named Turnbull. She discussed the matter with her grandson Christopher during the return train journey from Scotland last year, and he immediately began tracking down her long-lost relatives.
She said: “I gave him a few names I could remember, and Chris got his computer out and within an hour said he’d found a John Turnbull. By Monday lunchtime, John phoned me and said ‘are you my sister’?”
Doctor John Turnbull, a retired forestry research scientist who moved to Canberra in Australia with his wife Jenny in 1962, never knew Audrey existed until he was contacted by her son, Stephen.
Dr Turnbull, 71, said he was amazed at the discovery. He said: “It was firstly hard to believe, and then secondly, quite exciting to know I had a sister I didn’t know about.
“I have been looking into family history for 30 years, but I’ve never stumbled across Audrey before – it’s amazing. Just a couple of hours on an iPhone and here we are. If it wasn’t for the internet, it wouldn’t have happened.”
Audrey said: “I always wondered if there was anyone out there, and felt quite isolated because I didn’t know anything about myself - although mum and dad were brilliant.
“All I wanted when I started was a photo of my mother, which was something I didn’t have. We were all emotional when we found out, we were all in tears.”
Since the discovery last September, John and Audrey have spoken regularly on the phone, but they met for the first time with most of the British side of the family, at Ascot House, Heworth, on Sunday.
Dr Turnbull said: “We’re definitely finding some things just like mum or me, like physical characteristics. I’ve seen a picture of Audrey when she got married, and she looks very much like my daughter at the same age.
“I don’t know if you inherit a sense of humour, but I think she’s got a great one and there’s a meeting of the minds between us on that one.
“I really feel happy for Audrey, that she’s found her family. I have always had one, but she hasn’t, and I think it’s incredible that she’s found us after all this time.”
Audrey has two children, Stephen and Sue, and four grandchildren, while John has three children living in Australia, with six grandchildren and a seventh on the way. He said: “I hope one day they’ll get a chance to meet Audrey and the others.”
Brotherly love
FOR all her 80 years, Audrey Cassidy has felt alone. While she has a loving husband and son, she believed there was no other family because her real mother had no choice but to put Audrey up for private adoption.
Of late, Audrey has become ever more curious to learn who she really is and whether she could find any of her real relatives.
Within a few weeks she discovered her long-lost half-brother in Australia and since then they have spoken every couple of weeks on the phone.
Now the pair have finally met and we hope they had a wonderful time catching up on their previously unknown past.
This is one of those rare, heart warming stories and as Audrey says; now she can die happy, knowing she belongs to someone.
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