Over the past four years, we've been reuniting people with their long-lost relatives.

They've found her!

[both screaming and laughing] We have found your mum.

Really?

I feel like I can breathe.

-[man] Hello, Mum.

-[chuckles] But the reunion is just the beginning.

Once a relative has been found, how easy is it to build a relationship, after a lifetime apart?

I was just hoping and praying that everything would work out.

It's so important to take it slowly.

Do not rush it.

[woman] I feel like I've found a part of my life that's been missing.

[woman] I never, ever dreamt that it would work out so amazingly well, and I feel incredibly lucky.

In this series, we catch up with the families we've reunited to find out what happened next.

[woman] When we first met, it was, "Oh, my god can I do this?

Can I be somebody else?"

I'd never been anybody's sister.

It's not an easy thing for the biological mum to meet the adoptive mum.

-Hiya!

-Hello!

[Davina] This week, we catch up with three women who had spent years searching desperately -for their missing family.

-[crying] [woman] People used to say to me, "I've seen you," and you just think, "Well, that's got to be my twin.

How come other people have seen her, and I haven't?"

There's something about that kin thing that is just really, really important to me.

But has a reunion been everything they expected?

In your mind, it's always been the baby.

But then you confront-- you put the grown man... and that's different.

[gentle music playing] [Davina] Since Long Lost Family began four years ago, we've reunited more than 50 families.

Our first-ever case was an extraordinary story involving twins separated at birth.

When 66-year-old Jennifer Wilson approached us, she'd spent years looking for her twin, and her daughter Nicole had joined the search.

I don't feel sorry that I was adopted, 'cause I had a good mum and dad, but it upset me that we were split.

We were parted.

I don't think we should've been parted.

The sisters were separated as newborn babies, when their unmarried mother gave them both up for adoption.

There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think of her.

I just think, "Ooh, there's somebody missing."

I think, if you meet her, that you'll both look the same.

I'm not sure if you'll be identical.

But I think you'll both be little old women.

[Jennifer] Oh!

[laughter] Jennifer was adopted in 1943 and grew up in the industrial town of Rotherham.

She lived with the people she thought were her natural parents.

Just up the road lived a kindly neighbor called Auntie Eva.

[Jennifer] The white door there, that's where I lived with my mum and dad.

And then, two doors higher up, number 20, is where Auntie Eva lived.

And I used to see her every day.

She used to pop round and see my mum in the morning, and then at nighttime, she used to come round and bring her knitting and watch the television.

When she was 11, Jennifer discovered the truth about who Auntie Eva really was.

A cousin of mine told me.

She said, "You know, your auntie, she's your mum."

So, I went home and said to me mum, "Is Auntie Eva my mum?"

And she said, yes, she was.

I said, "And, also, my cousin told me I was a twin.

Is that right?"

And she said, "Yes."

"Ooh," I said, "Oh, that's strange.

Where did she go to live?"

But my mum-- my mum didn't know.

That was it.

It was never spoken about again.

This just means everything to me, everything.

I've got a happy marriage, good grandchildren, daughters, but this is just so different.

It's just so different that [crying] I've got to meet her.

I've just got to.

When Jennifer approached us, all she knew about her twin was that, at birth, she was called Judith Walton.

We soon discovered that Judith's name had been changed to Kathleen.

And, incredibly, we found that Kathleen was living just 3 miles away from Jennifer, in Rotherham.

[Nicky] I went to see Kathleen, who, until we contacted her, didn't even know she had a sister.

[laughing] Which way in?

Here?

Okay, right.

-Kathleen.

-Hello.

-Hello, I'm Nicky.

-Yes, pleased to meet you.

You too, really nice to meet you.

-[Kathleen] Yes, come in.

-Thank you.

[Nicky] I've been so looking forward to meeting you.

-[Kathleen] Yes, and me.

-That's two of us, then.

So, what were you thinking when you first heard that Jennifer had been looking for you?

It was a surprise, a very big surprise.

And that was-- that was the first inkling that you've had that you've got a sister.

Yeah, I had no idea.

No idea at all.

She's been really, really desperate to find you, her sister.

And the reason that she is so incredibly desperate to meet you is that she's not just your sister... she's your twin sister.

-I knew.

-Did you?

Yeah, don't ask me why.

Wow.

Gosh.

Ooh, a twin.

Would you like to see a photograph?

[Kathleen] Yeah.

I would.

Gosh, it gets better, doesn't it?

[Kathleen] Wow!

Gosh.

Wow.

Well, I suppose she is like me, isn't she?

-[Nicky] Must be so strange.

-Oh, it is.

Oh, this is... unbelievable, isn't it?

Well, I mean, just to... at 66 years old, to have some guys walk in off the street with a photograph of your twin sister... [laughs] I don't know what to s...

I don't know what to say, 'cause, um... Yeah.

I feel I've missed out a lot.

If only she'd have found me earlier.

[Kathleen] Where does she live?

Three miles away.

You're joking.

[exhales] Gosh.

-Where?

-Rotherham.

Oh, you're joking.

Wow.

[Davina] Finally, I was able to tell Jennifer something about the sister she'd been longing to find.

So, Jennifer, I have come here today with some news, and it's good news.

Your sister has been found Brilliant!

Oh!

I want to just-- Ooh!

I feel l could tackle the world today.

The one that should be next to me holding my hand is here.

Oh, I cant wait!

Oh, my god!

You'd better go tell Nicole in the kitchen.

-[whispering] Right.

-Okay, good luck.

-[Jennifer] Thank you.

-[laughs] Nicole!

I want you.

-[Jennifer] Nicole!

-What?

They found her!

[both screaming and laughing] -[Nicole] Really?!

-Yeah!

Yeah, look!

-They call her Kathleen!

-Oh!

-And she lives 3 miles away.

-Does she?

-Where does she live?

-I don't know.

And she sent me a letter.

And she does look like you!

She has got glasses and grey hair like an old woman!

[screaming] A week later, we arranged for the twins to be reunited in the park they had both played in as children.

-Hiya!

-Hello!

[Kathleen] Love to see you!

[both crying and laughing] [Jennifer] All this time, I've always known.

Oh, I can't believe it, it's... [crying] [Kathleen] And I've only known five weeks.

[Jennifer] Let's have a look.

You've even got the same glasses as me.

They're in me pocket.

[both laughing] [Kathleen] Oh, I can't see without mine on.

I'm as blind as a bat.

So, you was called Janet Walton?

Yeah.

-And you were Judith.

-Judith.

-Posh name.

I'm not a Judith.

-[laughs] Yeah, you see, you knew our mum.

Well I-- you know, you knew her.

-I didn't know her.

-She were a kind person.

-She weren't... -Yeah.

But to give twins up.

I've always said I feel like there should be somebody at the side of me, and I've got somebody-- somebody missing, and I just couldn't explain to anybody, but, you know, like now, it's, like, lifted.

-[Kathleen] Yes that bond.

-Lifted that funny feeling away.

When we're out shopping, and if anybody says, "Are you sisters?"

-Like, "We're twins."

-Twins.

-Oh, I know.

-[laughs] [upbeat piano music playing] Four years on from their reunion, and the twins are inseparable.

Despite having spent 60 years apart, the bond between them is unbroken.

[Jennifer] I think we've got a special relationship with being twins.

I'm not surprised we get on so well, really, 'cause we're twins, aren't we?

So, I suppose we've got to like the same things-- Well, we do like the same things.

When we have our lunch out, we usually have the same thing.

Either jacket potato or lasagna or scampi!

Yeah, we do.

Yeah, scampi's one of my favorites in fish.

[Jennifer] Since we met, we always go out on a Wednesday, just Kath and myself.

[Kathleen] That's Kath and Jenny's time, Wednesday.

[Jennifer] Yeah, and I'll say to Kath, "I'm linking arms."

And I always put me arm through Kath's.

Well, she's the oldest, so she's got to look after me.

[Jennifer] I think we're reliving our teenage times, because we missed out on that, so I think we must be the oldest teenagers in Rotherham.

[Kathleen laughs] Starting again.

-Do you think, Kath?

-I do, certainly.

Since meeting, the twins have been reflecting on the extraordinary discovery that they lived their whole lives in the same town yet never met.

[Jennifer] I just don't know how we haven't bumped into each other, because it's so small, Rotherham.

I mean, we must have passed, even in the market.

Probably been sat in doctor's surgery or dentist together.

Yeah 'cause we've got the same doctors, same dentist... [Kathleen] I can't believe that nobody picked it up after all them years.

[Jennifer] We'll be posh, we'll have a serviette.

[Kathleen] Oh, yes.

Even a mutual friend didn't make the connection.

[Jennifer] Joan, who I work with, has known Kath since she was 6.

She couldn't believe it, because she thought I was an only one.

She thought we looked alike but never realized we were twins.

Now reunited, the twins have had to confront the biggest issue of their past.

Their mother, Auntie Eva, chose to keep Jennifer in her life but gave Kathleen away.

Jenny knew her really, really well, and they used to go away together, and, uh-- I supposed she was like a mother to Jenny.

[Jennifer] When Kath found out about Auntie Eva, I felt really sorry for her.

I said, "Don't think Auntie Eva was a bad person.

She wasn't.

You'd have loved her, and she'd have loved you.

It was just circumstances that made us be apart."

Since meeting Jennifer, Kathleen has learnt that their mother, Auntie Eva, worked on the buses in Rotherham.

And another uncanny coincidence has come to light.

[Kathleen] A long time ago, when my children were little, I got on the bus, and them days, you put your pram under the stairs, and when I came to get off, the conductress used to say, "Get off, and I'll pass your pram."

And on this occasion, this lady said to me, "Can I hold your little boy?"

And she got hold of him and cuddled him.

And at first, I thought, "Oh, that's unusual."

I asked Jenny if she'd got any photographs with Eva, and when I saw that photograph, I said to Jenny, "That's that lady that helped me off the bus."

And that, obviously, was Eva.

Eva died in 1999, but Kathleen has now discovered that she spent her final years living just a stone's throw away from Kathleen's house.

[Kathleen] I used to walk through here many a time, and she's probably seen me.

It's such a shame that we lived so near, and yet we never met.

It's sad, really.

Wasn't to be, was it?

I would love to have met her, but, you know, that's the past.

Not knowing Eva and not knowing Jenny-- I think I've got to put it behind.

Now, we've just got to look forward and that we've found each other.

Since being reunited, the twins have traveled all over the country, telling their remarkable story.

[applause] Today, they're guest speakers at their local church.

Hello!

I'm Jenny.

[Kathleen] She has become my soulmate.

I suppose, before, I did everything with Derek, my husband.

But he never complains.

Well, he knows how happy I am, so... [Kathleen] And because our mother was a bus conductress, and our father was a bus driver, we are known as the Terminus Twins.

[laughter] Meeting Kath was one of the best things that's ever happened to me.

It's really filled a gap in my life.

It's just like winning the lottery, for me.

It was just something I'd always dreamt of but never thought that it could possibly happen.

[applause] Our second story features Polly Gillon, who approached us last year looking for the son she gave up for adoption when he was six weeks old.

When Polly came to us, she'd been searching for her son for over 20 years, desperately seeking his forgiveness.

[Polly] It's the first thing I look at in the morning and the last thing before I go to sleep at night.

And I treasure it.

It's the only thing I have.

I don't have anything else.

Just memories and a photograph.

Polly was in her early twenties and unmarried when she became pregnant.

[Polly] When I told my boyfriend, his whole persona changed.

"What are you going to do?"

It's not, "What are we going to do?"

It's, "What are you..." Polly's boyfriend wasn't the only one who didn't want the baby.

Her father was horrified and sent her away to give birth in secret.

On the 13th of November, 1959, Polly's son Phillip was born.

[Polly] When I first held him, it was just love at first sight, I loved him.

And he-- he needed me.

Just weeks after giving birth, Polly's father asked her to make an impossible decision.

I had a letter.

And it said there were two roads.

One led home and to family, "and we put this behind us," and the other leads to "no family, no support, and you're on your own... ...and we won't want to hear from you again."

Everyone round me was telling me that I couldn't keep him.

"You cannot keep him."

When Philip was six weeks old, Polly reluctantly took him to an adoption agency in Central London.

We went in, and we went up the stairs, into a room, and I said... "Don't let them do this."

[catches her breath] "Please don't let them do this.

Don't let them take him."

I went in holding a baby and came out without one, and I've never been the same since.

The clock ticks, you move on.

That doesn't mean to say you forget that feeling, that feeling of love.

That's never gone.

Now married with two grown-up children, Polly is still haunted by the decision she made over 50 years ago.

It was my responsibility to make a stand and say, "No, I will not do this."

Can I forgive myself?

I don't know.

I really, really don't know.

I'm just so... sorry.

I really am.

The search for Polly's son took us half way around the world, and, eventually, we found him living in New Zealand.

He was now married with three children, living an hour's drive north of Wellington.

Like most adopted babies, his name had been changed.

He was no longer called Phillip.

-Steve.

-Yeah.

I've come a long way to find you.

-I'm Nicky.

-Yeah, Nicky.

Uh, yeah.

Come on.

Would you like to come out here, Nicky?

Grab a seat.

[Nicky] Thank you.

This one?

-Yeah, that'd be fine.

-Great.

Steve had always known he was adopted but knew almost nothing about his birth mother.

She's lived for more than 50 years with this horrible feeling that you will feel rejected, and she seeks forgiveness.

I've never, ever felt any ill will towards her at all.

I've never felt rejected.

If you were to be found, Polly wrote you a letter.

That's for you.

[Steve] "My dear Philip, You have a different name now that is so hard for me to write, as I know you have led a life without my presence.

Remember you've always had someone thinking of you with love, and always will.

They took you from my arms, but they could never take you from my heart, Polly."

-[sighs] -This is a picture of Polly.

[Steve's breath shaking] I'm glad she's found me.

Thanks.

[Davina] Back in Oxfordshire, I went to tell Polly about the son she'd been longing to find.

-[Davina] Hi.

-Hello.

How are you doing?

Well, I'm here because I've got some news.

Philip has been found.

Oh.

[crying] Oh, heavens above!

Just to be able to explain things to him, just to tell him I always wanted him, always wanted him.

Oh, crumbs.

Oh, he's lovely.

This is wonderful.

My son.

Three weeks later, Steve flew from his home in New Zealand to be reunited with Polly.

[Steve] Hello, Mum.

[Polly crying] [Steve] It's okay, Mum.

-It's okay.

-[crying] Oh!

Oh, you look just like me.

I know.

When I saw your photo, I thought, "I finally look like somebody."

[Polly] Oh!

Come on.

Sit down.

I just wanted you to forgive me, because...

There was nothing ever to forgive.

You did nothing wrong.

[Polly] All I wanted to say was "at last," because it is at last.

I've waited all these years.

This has been really, really special.

It didn't feel like a teary, sad moment.

It was almost like... Mum had just come home from the shops or something.

Do you know what I mean?

It doesn't feel like 50 years.

[Steve] We'll just wing it and go from...

Yes, we'll do a day at a time.

-Yeah.

-Don't rush anything.

We've got a lot of talking.

I never want to lose you again, Mum.

You're not going to.

You're not going to.

Since meeting, Polly and Steve have been in touch regularly.

But as Steve lives in New Zealand, all of their contact has been by phone and email.

And they haven't seen each other for eight months.

You'd better not spot him before I do.

He's got to come through soon, surely.

What's taking so long?

Today, Polly and her husband, Mike, are waiting to greet Steve, his wife, Lisa, and their son, Alex, who are flying 12,000 miles from New Zealand to stay with them.

It's like meeting him for the first time again.

It's not like we've met.

It's strange.

There he is.

-[Steve] Hello, Mum -Oh, my darling.

How are you?

-Good to see you.

-[Polly] Tired.

[Polly] Darling.

Oh!

[Polly] Wonderful to have you here.

This is the first Christmas that Polly, Steve, and their families will spend together.

[Steve] The distance is a bit hard, but I felt it was important and really nice to have a family Christmas, 'cause we've never had one.

[Polly] I am making new memories, and they start this Christmas.

There's just that connection as a mother and son.

I tell him off.

It's not a friendship.

[Steve] I'm sitting straight.

[laughter] [Polly] It's a mother and son bond.

And not something I thought would happen, and it has.

And it's just fantastic.

[all talking] But Polly is still finding it hard to forget the past.

[Polly] Life is choices.

You make good ones, you make bad ones, but you have to live by the choices you make.

[Steve] You're talking 50 years ago.

You didn't have a choice.

You can beat yourself up over that for years and years, but at the end of the day, you didn't have a choice.

I wasn't there for your first tooth, your first step, your first day at school.

-First day at work.

-Well, I tell you what.

If it's any consolation, I don't remember my first step, I don't remember my first tooth, and I don't remember my first day at school, so, hey... and I was there, apparently, and I don't remember.

[Steve] We're obviously mother and son, but I don't know how going back in time helps going forward, because she wasn't there.

To me, it's very, very simple.

We just build a relationship as we go.

Tattoos.

You don't like them, do you?

[Steve] It was the only thing that Mum asked me-- "Please don't get one."

Oh, really?

Hmm.

As a young man, you should never, ever get your hands done.

[Polly] I'm appreciative of his mother and father, I really am, for bringing him up and giving him a good life and being happy, but at the same token, jealous... that they had those years and I didn't.

I would have liked to have had him in the spring.

But I'm happy that piece of my heart that was missing is in place now.

Sadly, Steve and Polly's first Christmas together didn't work out as they had hoped.

Steve returned to New Zealand, and he and Polly haven't spoken since.

While Steve has decided he would prefer not to talk about it, Polly wants to.

So, I'm on my way to see her.

-[Davina] Hey!

-Hello.

-[Davina] How are you doing?

-Fine.

How are you?

Now, Polly, I know that I'm here because it's got tricky.

-Yes.

-And I just want to talk to you a bit about what happened.

There was five of us here, and, as my husband would say, everything went pear-shaped.

If you're all on top of each other, it's very stressful.

It was a mistake, because you have this romantic idea in your head that everything's going to be wonderful, because I'm like that, in any case-- "Oh, I could just imagine it.

It's going to be so good."

But it isn't, because you have different-- different viewpoints, different ideas... Is it that, you know, you've had a picture of this baby by your bed... Mm-hmm, and still have.

You still have?

No, he's still there.

It's very, very difficult-- it's very difficult for any mother who's had a child taken away from her.

Because that's what it is.

And, in your mind, it's always been the baby, and then you're confronted with a grown man.

And that's different.

-And difficult?

-Very.

Very difficult.

[Davina] Hmm.

It's so important to take it slowly.

Do not rush it.

Oh, do not rush it.

Just get to know each other first.

Just get to know each other.

I wanted to have... -53 years of love stored... -Oh, Polly, that's so sad.

...is actually stored, and it's all... come out, and it's gone nowhere, because he's not there.

We all think that this is going to be a rosy, lovely ending... -And sometimes it's not.

-And sometimes it's not.

Do you see a way forward for the two of you?

I may just have to resign myself to the fact that I know he's alive and well, and that's what I always wanted to know.

But I don't want to close the book.

And that's... You know, that's all I can say, really.

We'll just have to see where it goes from here.

Which I have no idea.

Our final story features Laura McCarthy, who approached us four years ago, looking for her birth mother, Linda.

When Laura came to us, she'd been searching for her mother for over 25 years.

43-year-old Laura grew up in the UK, but she moved to Australia in her 20s, where she now lives with her husband, Pete, and her son, Max.

-Mwah!

-I'm good.

How are you?

[Laura] I'm tired.

Laura was adopted as a baby and always struggled to come to terms with her adoption.

[Laura] I've always felt as though I need to make an apology for existing.

Almost like I was wearing a sign on my head that said "I'm adopted.

I'm not worthy."

Apart from being told her birth mother's name, Linda Williamson, the subject was strictly taboo.

It was absolutely forbidden to talk about it.

Any time I did try and talk about it, I was told quite clearly that that wasn't to be discussed, and so, very, very early on, I realized that, for some reason, it was a dirty secret.

For years, Laura's questions about her birth mother remained unanswered.

But when she gave birth to her son, Max, she became determined to find answers.

I literally gave birth to him one day, and the next day, I thought, "As soon as I get out of here, I have to do something about the search."

I just realized how important that blood link is.

He's the only person on the planet who looks like me, who's like me.

And it really brought home to me how much I really wanted to find my other family.

[keyboard clacking] Laura employed an international search agency to help her.

They found out that Linda had gone on to have another daughter, called Alison.

However, nothing could be found of Linda.

Laura was back to square one.

[Laura] The not knowing is the hardest thing to live with.

Not knowing if she's ever thought about me, not knowing if she has blocked me out of her mind.

Not knowing... what happened to her afterwards.

Yeah, that's the hardest bit, is the not knowing.

When we started our search, we could find no trace of Laura's mother either.

But we did manage to find her half-sister Alison, in Northamptonshire.

She told us that their mother, Linda, had died in 2003.

[Davina] Alison told us that Linda had been missing from her childhood too.

She walked out when Alison was four years old to begin a new life in America, and Alison only got to know Linda as an adult.

-Hi, Alison.

-Hi, Davina.

-How are you?

-Come in.

I'm fine, you?

[Davina] Yes, good, thank you.

What was your relationship like with Linda?

Well, it wasn't a typical mother-daughter relationship, because, you know, we were apart for such a long time.

She was quite, um, strong-minded.

I think she knew what she wanted from life, and I think perhaps being tied down with children wasn't really the life, I think, she planned for herself.

You're amazingly magnanimous about it.

I wasn't always.

I was resentful when I was younger.

But then, you just-- you know, you just have to get on with your life.

She must have mentioned Laura to me when I was very young, because I've always known about Laura.

I've always known that I've got a big sister.

When I was little, I used to think, "Oh, I wish she was here so I could play with her and tell her secrets," and, you know, as you get older...

I remember when I got married.

-I missed her then.

-Yeah, I bet you did.

I really thought about her a lot on that day.

Would you like to see a picture?

[gasps] Really?

Yes, I'd love to.

God.

She's gorgeous.

I can see Linda in her as well.

So nice.

[Davina] Even though she did know she was adopted, she was never allowed to discuss it.

She felt that it was a bit like a dirty secret.

You see, it was never, never for us, for our family.

She never was.

I would imagine that would mean a lot.

[Alison] Yeah.

[Nicky] Out of respect, we told Laura the news about her mother's death without the cameras being there.

I then traveled to Australia to tell her that we'd found her half-sister, Alison.

Laura.

Nicky.

-[Laura] Hi.

How are you?

-Good.

[Nicky] I'm so sorry about your mother.

How's that been?

It's... hard.

I wish I'd done this earlier.

Are you ready to see a photograph?

Oh, my god.

Yeah.

[Nicky] This is... your mother.

[Laura gasps] Wow.

[crying] I think I've got her eyes.

She's beautiful, isn't she?

[Laura] She is beautiful.

I've got to say, one of the... huge joys of my own experience is the experience of meeting siblings.

I think I know I have one sister.

-Yeah.

-I think her name's Alison.

Yeah.

I've always wanted a sister.

Well, she always wanted a sister as well.

In fact, she knew about you from a very early age.

So, you were always a part of Alison's life.

Do you have photos of her too?

[Nicky] That is your sister.

[Laura] Oh, my god!

[laughing] She's beautiful.

[exhales loudly] She's gorgeous.

She's my baby sister.

There's a letter here from your sister.

[Laura] "Dear Laura, Ever since I was a little girl, I've known I had a big sister, and I used to wish you were there to play dolls with and tell secrets to.

[crying] We have so much time to make up for.

So, as I come to the end of this letter, I'm excited that this is just the beginning.

See you soon.

[laughs] Love, Alison."

I would so love to meet her.

She would love to meet you.

I'm so happy.

-Are you?

-Yeah.

Where are you, Pete?

Look what I've got.

-[crying] -[Pete] Is that her?

That's my sister.

[Laura] Do you think she looks like me?

[Pete] Yeah, absolutely.

Four years ago, Laura McCarthy approached us, looking for her birth mother, Linda.

Sadly, we discovered Linda had died, but we did find Laura's sister, Alison.

Laura flew over to the UK from her home in Australia to meet her sister for the first time.

They met at what was once the mother and baby home where Laura was born.

[Alison] Hello.

[crying] Oh, God.

[Alison] Oh, I can't believe it.

[Laura] I can't believe it either.

You know, the most wonderful thing for me is to hear about how you've always known about me and how you wanted to meet me, 'cause I never, ever, ever, ever in a million years thought that it would be like this.

I just assumed that I was this little thing that no one ever wanted to talk about.

-No, no, no... -And I didn't know that you thought like that at all.

I've always known about you, and I've always known that you were gonna come and find us, always.

Well, I've been trying for years and years.

You're my sister.

I'm just so sorry I wasn't there for you.

And me.

I feel a bond with you already, because she wasn't really there much for me either.

And you know in your letter that you wrote to me, and it said you couldn't wait to welcome us into... coming into the family.

I really hung on that word "the" family.

Not "our" family.

It wasn't like you were saying... it's your family, and I'm coming in.

-Yeah.

No, no, no.

-You just said it like it was "the" family, and I was already in it.

-Yeah, well you are.

-So that's why-- You just haven't met us.

It doesn't mean you're not part of our family.

I'm really sorry Linda's passed away.

But you have changed my life by saying that.

That's more than I could possibly have hoped for.

You were never a dirty little secret.

We always knew about you.

We just hoped one day you would come and find us.

[both laughing] Four years on, Laura and Alison have a close relationship, despite living on opposite sides of the world.

Today, Alison is making her first trip to Australia to stay with Laura.

It will also be the first time their sons, Max and Josh, will meet.

It's amazing!

I can't believe it.

I can't believe she's really coming.

I've been asking her ever since we first met, and now, she's finally coming, and I can't believe it.

I actually can't believe it.

[child crying] Hang on, there's people coming.

[laughing] In the middle of all this sort of loss and grief and frustration and sorrow that I'd missed out on meeting my mother, suddenly, there was this other person that I hadn't even thought about.

And that's a whole different relationship-- a sister from a mother.

After all these years, all of a sudden, here I am, and she spoils me, you know, she's very protective, and she's a brilliant older sister.

A year after their first meeting, Laura and Alison traveled to America together, hoping to find out more about the mother who abandoned them both as children.

Alison told me that Linda had left her and had taken off to America, and that's where she lived the rest of her life.

And so, to me, it seemed like the obvious thing to do then was to go finish the search, answer all the questions that we had and go on this voyage of discovery together, Alison and I.

It filled in so many gaps.

We got to know each other so much better, and I think it was nice for us just to be just me and Laura, without having our families.

It just gave us time to concentrate on each other.

It was brilliant, because we came away feeling closer.

-I think I look like her there.

-Yes...

The sisters visited Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where their mother, Linda, lived.

They met the friends and family who knew her in the final years of her life.

I'm still trying to find out who she was, what she was like, so I can see where my identity is from.

And I really wanted to get some people to say nice things about her.

I started to get a rather negative view of her from people, um... which was really upsetting, because I really wanted her to be this wonderful woman that I had in my head, and she really wasn't.

I think she was actually quite selfish, and I think that she wasn't really into nurturing anybody else except herself.

She didn't really have a huge circle of friends, did she?

[Alison] As her children, it's unfortunate for us that she wasn't the most maternal person, but at the same time, I think it helps you deal with what's happened, understanding that it wasn't us, it was the way she was.

I just don't think she ever really knew what she wanted.

I think she was always chasing something that maybe she just never found.

[Laura] I'm still working through the fact that I found out that my mother was not a great person and hurt a lot of people, and I'm still not through that yet... 'cause it's not what you want to hear.

Since finding out more about her mother, Laura has changed her views about her adoption.

[Laura] I now know, and I've said this to my adoptive family, that if I'd been raised by Linda, I don't think I'd be where I am today.

I wouldn't have been given the opportunities and done the things that I've been able to do.

And I regret some of the things that I have done and said to them when I was an angry teenager and later years.

I think I've become a lot more humble.

[laughs] Which isn't a bad thing.

But am I glad I was adopted?

No.

In spite of everything, I would still rather have been raised in a family with Alison.

It has changed my life to know that I have a blood relative in Alison.

My son is a blood relative, and Alison is a blood relative.

That is just really, really, primally important to me.

It's about the blood thing, it's about that.

Yay, good job!

I've gone from me searching for a woman for 35 years and then finding these other two people in my life who I didn't even know existed, who are just the most amazing people, to watching our two boys having a wonderful relationship whilst Alison and I continue to build ours, and it's just amazing.

I just wanted to say to Ali and to Josh, thank you for being, you know, alive, and being my baby sister!

-[Alison] She's just brilliant.

-Yeah, say "cheers"!

[Alison] She's always there, whether you're happy, whether you're sad, whether you're down about anything.

I know I can pick up the phone, and she's there.

Laura's in my life now, and she will be for the rest of my life.

You know, we'll always be close.

We're family.

My wish is that everybody who is searching for family stay with the faith, because you may end up finding a different person than you originally started off, but how lucky are we?

[peaceful music playing]