[Davina] For thousands of people across Britain, someone is missing from their lives.

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

[man] The major mystery for me is, who is he, where is he, and what did he turn into?

[woman] I wanna know, does he wanna be part of my life?

Does he want to get to know his daughter?

But all too often, years of searching lead nowhere.

Well, this is the series that steps in to help, offering a last chance to people desperate to find long lost family.

They've found her!

[shrieking] This has been a long road.

Come here.

-Hiya!

Hello!

-Oh!

We have found your mum.

Really?

I feel like I can breathe.

Our searches have uncovered family secrets and taken us all over the world, finding people that no one else has been able to trace.

Two walks in a park, two different families.

-Yeah.

-And one incredible story.

So all this time she thought, "He doesn't want to know me," you've been searching for each other.

And finally answering the questions that have haunted entire lives.

I don't know if you can understand what that means.

[Davina] This time we search for two lost boys, one born to a 16-year-old school girl who kept her pregnancy secret until she went into labor...

The actual decision I made in my head to have him adopted was while I was on the table giving birth to him.

...and the other, the little brother of a girl who last saw him being taken away by a mysterious couple called Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

He may not even know that he has a sister.

[dramatic music playing] Our first search is on behalf of a woman from London who's spent the last 30 years looking for her long lost brother.

Jeannie Elgar grew up in post-war London in the late 1940s, with her little brother Geoffrey.

Geoffrey was a really lovely looking boy.

He had fair, curly hair and blue eyes and very angelic looking... [laughs] ...which I don't think he was all the time!

From what I remember, he was quite funny and I think he was very loving and I loved him.

Jeannie and Geoffrey lived with their single mother in a small rented flat.

Back in the late 1940s, Britain was still recovering from the war.

There was little state provision to fall back on and life was hard.

She was under a lot of stress because obviously she was working.

There was no father providing for us and no extra money coming in.

There wasn't the financial help that there is nowadays for parents, and, uh, I think she found the financial strain too much.

Everything was to change one day when Jeannie was eight and Geoffrey was four.

A couple who called themselves Mr. and Mrs. Smith knocked on the door.

[Jeannie] I can still see in my mind's eye the couple.

We only had two rooms in the house and in the little sort of sitting room, I remember sitting with my mother, and I remember Mrs. Smith asked me if I would ever leave my mother, and I sort of shrank back towards my mother and said, "No, I wouldn't."

And...

I don't remember exactly Geoffrey going out of the door.

I don't know if I kissed him goodbye even.

What eight-year-old Jeannie couldn't have understood is that Geoffrey had been adopted.

A few months later, her mother received a letter from Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

I don't remember what they said, except I think that they indicated that Geoffrey was fine during the day but that at night he was calling for his Jeannie.

The letter had been sent from HMS Orion, bound for the Pacific island of Fiji.

It was the last Jeannie ever heard of her brother.

Sixty years on, Jeannie's happily married with a large family of her own.

Well, the question is, half or a Buck's Fizz?

Oh, Buck's Fizz, please.

But she's never stopped wondering what happened to her brother Geoffrey.

She even named her youngest son after him.

It's a constant reminder of her lost brother and the uncle I never knew.

Being in the dark and not knowing what has happened to Geoffrey is the worst part for her because she wants to know, warts and all, what's happened.

I imagine him to be... tall, and I still see the fair hair, but I suppose now it must be grey.

[contemplative music playing] When Jeannie first started searching for her brother 30 years ago, she'd almost nothing to go on.

She wasn't even sure if the couple who adopted him were really called Smith.

Sixty years has gone by since he went, and he could be dead.

He...

I don't know, he could be anywhere.

He could be in the next street, and I wouldn't know, and I don't know what he looks like.

Even with so little information, Jeannie continued her search undaunted.

Then two years ago she had a breakthrough when she found the passenger records for HMS Orion, dating from 1950.

They confirmed that the couple who adopted Geoffrey had indeed been called Smith.

Mr. Smith, the man who adopted Geoffrey, and I noticed that he was 41, so a little bit younger than his wife at 44.

And there was another unexpected piece of information.

They also had adopted another baby boy, who was six months old.

His name was Welch, and it says "Master R." But despite the discovery of this crucial document, Jeannie had no idea how to take the search further.

I don't know what else to do.

He may not even know that he has a sister.

So for him to know that he has a sister... who's missed him would be good.

This seemed like an impossible search.

It dated back over 50 years.

We were trying to trace a Mr. and Mrs. Smith, who have the most common surname in the English language and trying to search for a boy that was last heard of boarding a boat to the other side of the world.

Nicky Campbell takes up the story.

[peaceful music playing] [Nicky] The only trace that Jeannie could find of Geoffrey showed that in 1950, he was onboard a ship bound for Fiji via Australia.

However, a trace of the Fijian and Australian records of the time showed there was no sign of the Smith family disembarking.

Undeterred, we went back to the passenger list and noticed Mr. Smith's occupation, civil servant.

If he worked for the civil service abroad, it was a good bet that it was for the foreign office.

We confirmed that an Arthur Smith had been posted to Fiji as a customs controller.

Unfortunately that was the last record of Arthur Smith in the foreign office archive.

We could only assume that after Fiji, he changed jobs or retired.

The trail had gone cold again.

Our last chance was to take an educated guess as to where Arthur and his family ended up.

According to foreign office records, he'd gone to school in Bermuda.

So maybe that's where Mr. and Mrs. Smith took Geoffrey and their other adopted son.

[gulls calling] We searched for a Mr. and Mrs. Smith in Bermuda and we found no record of an Arthur Smith, but we did, however, find this.

A book published locally which contains a chapter about an Edith Irene Smith.

Crucially, the biography confirmed that she'd lived in Fiji with her husband, who worked for the foreign office.

When we asked around, lots of people remembered Mrs. Smith on the island, but none of them had any contact details for Geoffrey.

We placed an advert in the main Bermuda newspaper, the Royal Gazette, asking if anyone knew anything more about the Smith family.

Then, we got a call from a woman who said her father Robert was Mr. and Mrs. Smith's son.

Could Robert be the R Welch that Jeannie found on the shipping records?

He agreed to meet me to discuss the case.

So we're looking for Moira Hole.

Up here somewhere.

This is it.

Perfect, thank you very much.

Right.

Hello, Robert.

Sorry to disturb you on a busy working day.

No, just putting a few things away.

-Nicky Campbell.

-Pleased to meet you, Nicky.

Thank you so much for seeing us.

-Quite welcome.

-Can we go and talk?

-Sure, come right this way.

-Brilliant.

Better check I've got the right person here.

-It's Robert Smith, right?

-Yep.

And your parents were Edith Irene Smith... -And Arthur Richie.

-And Arthur Richie Smith.

-Yep.

-Right.

-And your adopted brother?

-Geoffrey.

Well, it's really good to see you.

Glad to meet you.

I'm here on behalf of Jeannie Elgar.

Uh... when Jeannie was eight years old, she has this traumatic memory of her four-year-old little brother being taken for adoption, and she's thought about him all her life.

And she just wants to know what happened to Geoffrey.

Uh... Geoffrey passed away in 1979.

He had a tragic boat accident.

Power boat racing.

How old was he when he died?

He would have been 34.

That's going to be devastating news.

-Yeah.

-For her, for Jeannie.

Yeah.

Did he speak about her?

He spoke about her all the time.

He told me that he had a sister that was four years older than him and he actually used to go looking for his sister because he had a mental picture of her in his mind and he swore he would recognize what she looked like.

And if you know you have a sister out there, even though you've been adopted by a wonderful family that's taken care of you and, you know, taken care of all your needs and everything, you still have that desire to go and find your biological sister.

Despite his untimely death, Robert was keen to stress how happy Geoffrey's life had been.

Born to a poverty stricken mother from London, Geoffrey had been adopted by one of the wealthiest families in Bermuda.

He was educated at an exclusive boarding school in England and went on to become a record producer.

That's Geoffrey, that's the way I remember him.

Laid back and very happy.

-[Nicky] Good '70s hair there.

-Yeah.

Now, that's my mother and father and myself and Geoffrey in London.

Well, let's have a look at the little curly-haired boy in these photographs 'cause he looks to be just about the same age.

My goodness me, he's holding your father's hand in the same way that he's holding Jeannie's hand.

Left hand.

[Nicky] That picture there is not that long... -No.

-...after that picture there with Jeannie, it's so very, very shortly after the adoption.

I've got an eight-year-old, and if her little sister was taken away... -Yeah.

-How it would impact on her.

-Oh, yeah.

-For the rest of her life.

Two walks in a park.

Two different families.

-Yeah.

-And one incredible story.

But he certainly had a good life.

He had a wonderful life.

To know that he was happy and that he had a good life will mean so much to Jeannie.

Now she can put the questions aside... and be happy for him.

And I can't wait to meet Jeannie.

[contemplative music playing] [Davina] We've been searching for Jeannie Elgar's brother Geoffrey, who she last saw over 50 years ago.

The only clue she had to his whereabouts was a passenger list showing he'd boarded a boat to Fiji in 1950.

After an eight-month search, we tracked him down via foreign office records to the island of Bermuda, only to discover that Geoffrey died in 1979 in a tragic power boat accident.

I'm now on my way to see Jeannie.

-Hi, can we go to Haymarket?

-Sure.

Thank you.

Out of respect, we've already told her that her brother has died, without the cameras being there.

I'm hoping... because Jeannie's always had so many questions about Geoffrey and what happened to him, that by giving her some answers, I can also somehow offer her some comfort.

[peaceful music playing] -Hi.

-Thank you.

-Are you all right?

-Yes, thank you.

So I just wanted to start off by saying I'm really, really sorry for your loss.

How have you been feeling since we told you?

I was quite devastated to think that he'd been dead all those years.

But now I know what happened, and I won't go to my grave wondering if he was all right and had a good life.

-Well, he did have a good life.

-Thank you.

Would you like to see some photos and I can kind of explain a bit more... -Yes.

-...via the photos?

Are you ready to see the photos?

I'll get my glasses on.

Well, this first photograph is Geoffrey and Robert.

[Jeannie] Oh.

[sniffles] So he's still got his curly hair.

Yes!

And I see an enormous resemblance to you, actually, in that picture.

Gosh.

He looks as if he's got a gap in his teeth there, and my mother had that.

Aw, they look very sweet, don't they, together?

He looks very nice too, Robert.

-They were very close.

-That's good.

Well, this photograph might bring up some feelings.

It must have been about the time that Geoffrey...

Yes.

[sniffling] It is.

She does look like a nice lady, though, doesn't she?

-Yes.

-She's kind and smiling.

[Jeannie] Yes, and he's holding his hand, so... [Davina] Does that mean a lot to you?

Yes.

It means the world to me that, you know, it's... that he had, you know, good parents.

Robert and Geoffrey had a blissful childhood, so it was a really successful adoption.

It's lovely.

Thank you.

I don't expect he remembered me.

-Well, Robert... -I don't know.

...told us that he never forgot you.

Really?

Honestly?

Thank you.

Sorry.

That means so much.

I can't tell you.

I thought that he'd forgotten.

He never forgot.

He never, never forgot.

Thank you.

Now I've got a letter from Robert.

Oh.

Right.

"Dear Jeannie."

"I hope that this letter finds you well."

"Geoff had such a vivid memory of you."

"He always said to me, 'I will know her when I see her.'"

"Geoff spoke of you often and I also felt that my sister was missing."

"I would love to meet you, I have so many stories to tell you."

"You are always welcome at my home."

"I look forward to meeting you soon."

"Sincerely Robert."

-Oh, God.

-And there he is.

Ah, he looks really nice.

I would like him to be my brother because he was so close to Geoffrey.

So... kind of an adoptive brother would be nice.

That was pretty traumatic for Jeannie, but I think the realization that Geoffrey had never forgotten her and that he'd even searched for her just as she'd been searching for him, along with the fact that she'll be going to Bermuda, meeting Robert, learning all about Geoffrey, and then being able to say goodbye, all of those things, I think, may finally give her some kind of closure.

[contemplative music playing] But before Jeannie goes to Bermuda to meet Robert, we start our second story here in the market town of Leighton Buzzard with a woman who is haunted by a decision she made over 25 years ago.

When she was 15, Kirsty West seemed like an ordinary teenager.

But she was hiding a big secret.

After a couple of months, I knew something was going on.

Uh, I think the first time I actually accepted that it was really happening was the first time I felt it move.

In the summer of 1984, Kirsty had a fling with a boy she'd met while on a family holiday.

When she got back, they saw each other a few times, but it wasn't till after they split up that she realized she was pregnant.

[Kirsty] I was terrified about being pregnant, really terrified.

And I didn't want to talk about it to anybody.

Kirsty kept her pregnancy secret from everyone, including her parents.

I was about 14 then.

Her partner Andy was one of the few people who knew.

At the time they were good friends.

I don't know whether I was supposed to know or not, but yeah, I was aware of it, although I didn't really believe it because there weren't any physical signs.

You wouldn't have known she was pregnant.

Your sister's wedding, the photograph.

[Kirsty] Yeah, that was three months before he was born so I was six months pregnant there.

You wouldn't know it.

-Nobody knew.

-[Andy] No.

God, you look so young.

I'd got so used to holding it in, I would have been sucking my stomach right in there.

[Andy] Yeah, you couldn't tell.

[Kirsty] I went around like that all the time.

Keeping it secret was one thing, but Kirsty was unable to come to terms with the pregnancy herself.

Although I'd sort of stand there and look at myself in the mirror and I'd feel all the kicks and everything happening, just still kept saying to myself, "It's okay, it'll go away, it'll go away."

"Don't worry about it."

I really convinced myself.

[contemplative music playing] Kirsty remained in denial right up to the point when she went into labor.

It was about sort of tea time, and, uh, I felt a bit strange and went up to the bathroom and my waters broke.

I just paced around all night in the room, sort of trying to get comfortable, into a position where I wasn't in so much pain.

It was a very, very long, lonely night.

Spent on my own, scared stiff, not knowing what to do.

The truth finally came out the following morning when her mum called the doctor.

The doctor came out and confirmed to my mum what was happening.

Of course she immediately sort of started crying and, "Why didn't you tell me?"

and all this.

You know, "Didn't you feel you could trust me?"

I suppose it was a very traumatic time for everybody.

It was only now, after months of secrecy, that 16-year-old Kirsty faced up to the most difficult decision of her life.

[contemplative music playing] The actual decision I made in my head to have him adopted was while I was on the table giving birth to him, and I actually said to the nurses, "Don't let me see him, I'm not keeping him, I don't want to see him."

Kirsty gave birth to a healthy boy who was immediately taken away from her.

As they wheeled him out of the room, I caught a glimpse of him then.

All I really saw was sort of like the top of his head.

I felt that natural pull of, you know, mum, "he's my baby and I want him with me."

But I felt that I was doing what was right for him and not thinking about what was right for me.

I believed I was doing the right thing for my baby.

Kirsty named her baby Stephen and he spent six months with foster parents before finally being adopted.

This one was taken just after he was born in hospital.

Uh, this one was the day before his adoption took place.

They're there and I can get them out when I'm on my own and have a little cry.

But, yeah, that's all I've got to remember him, my little man.

For the past 25 years, Kirsty has struggled with her decision.

She's also been unable to have another child despite years of trying.

I suppose I've tried not to let it show openly, inside is where all the pain's happening.

She needs to know, did she do the right thing?

And if that's all she finds out, if she was to be told that, "Yes, you did the right thing," that to Kirsty would mean everything.

[keying] Kirsty is desperate for answers, but despite years of searching, she's gotten nowhere.

Like most adoptions, details of baby Stephen's new family were withheld from Kirsty, as was his new name.

With nothing to go on, she's resorted to posting his details on message boards in the hope that someone might recognize him and put them in touch.

I would want to tell him that I love him very much, always have.

Uh, it was never an issue at all.

I didn't give him away because I didn't love him, I gave him away because I did love him, I suppose.

But I...

I did what I thought was right for him at the time, and I so hope that I was right.

[peaceful music playing] [Andy] It's like a dream for her.

It's what she wants more than anything else in the world, and I feel that once she achieves that, she'll be able to move on and enjoy life a lot more.

It's not surprising that Kirsty's search for her son has been so difficult.

Until relatively recently, it was almost impossible for birth parents to trace adopted children.

Nicky Campbell takes up the story.

When children are adopted, they're effectively given a whole new identity.

Not just a surname from their new parents, but almost always a new first name too.

The record of baby Stephen's new first name is in the General Record Office, but, because of the sensitive nature of adoption, access to the information is strictly controlled.

The only way we could help Kirsty was to work with a registered intermediary who's legally entitled to access adoption records.

Once they discovered baby Stephen's new name, they could trace him.

If successful, they would need his consent before passing on his details to us.

Then we had a call to say that Kirsty's son had been traced.

He's living in Bedfordshire, not far from Kirsty, and his adoptive name is James Sorentino.

This one here, I think.

James was adopted by an Italian couple and grew up in the Bedford area, where he now works as a tree surgeon.

He's agreed to meet me to find out more about his birth mother.

Not a day goes by when Kirsty doesn't think about James, but, of course, what about his perspective?

I wonder if he's ever thought about this at all, ever focused on his adoption, ever seen a photograph of her?

And also has he had the kind of upbringing that Kirsty so wanted him to have, the one that she couldn't give him?

I wonder if he's in any way bitter about the fact he was given up for adoption?

And of course the big question, does he want to meet his birth mother?

I'm about to meet James Sorentino, to tell him about his birth mother Kirsty West, who gave him up for adoption 26 years ago when she was just 16.

-James.

-Hi, Nicky.

-Nicky, hi.

-Nice to meet ya.

Thank you very much for having us.

-Come in, come in.

-Who's this?

-Little Liam.

-[chuckles] Liam.

-Is that your only one?

-Yeah.

-And got another on the way.

-Another on the way.

-Yeah.

-[Liam] Hello.

-Come on, Liam.

-Liam.

-Go see Mummy.

-Oh, hello.

-Hi, I'm Claire.

-Hello, Claire.

Because, on the way, I'm just hearing.

Yes, yeah, in January.

-Yeah, congratulations.

-Thank you.

[laughs] [peaceful music playing] [Nicky] So has this all been an incredible surprise?

[James] Yeah, definitely.

I mean, when I first received the letter, it was just completely out of the blue.

I was just reading a letter, and it said Kirsty has been to track down her son, James Sorentino, and I was, like, just gobsmacked, and yeah, just incredible.

And when you saw the name Kirsty... Yeah, that was a big shock as well.

It's like the first time I'd ever known, yeah, what she was called or... the first real thing I really knew about her.

When you were growing up... uh...

I mean, you know, I'm adopted, and... it's funny, sometimes it's at the front of your head and sometimes it's at the back of your head, isn't it?

And sometimes it doesn't need to be anywhere.

Yeah, I mean, you forget, don't you?

And then all of a sudden you just click and remember and then you try and not think about it again.

But, uh, I found out when I was about seven.

-Was it a good adoption?

-Yeah, yeah, great.

I've had a great childhood.

Yeah.

Love our mum and dad, never had any problems there.

The main thing for Kirsty has been, the moment you were born until now, it's... "I wonder if he's been okay."

So the fact that you have is... for her it will be just fantastic.

Don't have any grudges or anything like that.

So I hope she doesn't worry about that.

'Cause I don't know what she's been feeling like, if she would think, "Is he gonna hate me 'cause I've given him up or...?"

-But there's none of that.

-No.

Do you wanna see a photo?

Yeah, I'd love to see a photo.

Um... [James] My heart's, like, thumping now.

Well, it's a big moment.

-[James] Yeah, big moment.

-There's your birth mother.

Yeah, it's so weird looking at... my mum, you know, weird.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's incredible.

-It is incredible, isn't it?

-Yeah.

She's written you a letter.

[contemplative music playing] "Stephen," yeah, that's my real name, isn't it?

That's what she called me.

"First and most importantly, I hope this letter finds you happy and well."

"I've never stopped thinking about you and hoping you were happy."

"Over the past 25 years, I've wondered how you were every birthday."

"I would love to meet you and see for myself the person you've grown into."

"Take care."

"Fondest thoughts and wishes, Kirsty."

That's a nice letter, I like that.

And it never occurred to me that she'd be thinking about me, especially on, like, birthdays as she was saying.

Never occurred to me about that, yeah, she'd be thinking about me, wondering how I am.

Just never thought about it.

So how do you feel about meeting her?

I definitely have to meet her now.

Now that, yeah, I've read the letter, seen a picture.

I just can't let it lie now, I've gotta meet her.

I can't just stop at a picture 'cause that doesn't answer me any questions, does it?

[Davina] Two days later and I'm on my way to see Kirsty to break the news that James has been found and he wants to meet her.

The decision that Kirsty made all those years ago has just completely dominated her life, and all she really wants to know is that the choices that she made for her son were the right ones and that he's happy.

It's just round the back.

I think this is your one here.

Brilliant, thank you very much.

Bye.

Kirsty?

Hi.

-[Kirsty] Hello!

-How are you doing?

-Good, good.

How are you?

-I'm all right.

-Lovely to meet you.

-And you.

-Going to come in?

[laughs] -Yes, please.

Well, obviously a search like this is quite complicated because adopted people need protection.

Their identity has to be protected, which makes a search like this difficult.

So I'm here because we've got some news.

Your son has been found.

-His name is James.

-Is he all right?

-He's really all right.

-Is he?

Would you like to see a picture?

I would love to see a picture.

Oh, wow!

Oh, oh, oh.

Oh, that's unbelievable.

Oh, bless him.

He's lovely, isn't he?

[Davina] He looks so like you.

[laughs] He's got my eyes, hasn't he?

He really has.

I've wanted to see this picture for so long, 25 years.

Oh.

he's gorgeous, isn't he?

[clicks tongue] Thank you.

I've got another picture I'd like to show you.

[gasps] He's a daddy.

Oh.

Oh, wow!

Oh, he's lovely.

-He's written you a letter.

-Has he?

"Hi, Kirsty.

Hope you are well."

"My name is James."

"I live with my girlfriend Claire and my little boy Liam."

"We also have another baby on the way."

Oh, wow.

"I've had a happy childhood and a good upbringing with very loving parents."

"Being adopted has not caused me any problems and I don't have any grudges."

"Since having Liam, it made me realize it must have been so hard for you."

"James."

That's really comforting, so comforting 'cause I've worried so much that, you know, did I do the right thing?

And I was scared to death that he was unhappy or hated me for doing it in the first place.

If it never went any further than this, I'm just happy to know.

I'm really happy.

Would you like it to go further than this?

Oh, yes.

I'd love to meet him.

If I got the chance, that would be lovely.

-He'd like to meet you.

-Oh, good.

-I'm so pleased to hear that.

-He would like to meet you.

It's the best day.

[laughs] It's like all me birthdays and Christmases came at once.

Lovely.

-They found my boy.

-[Andy] Really?

-[Kirsty] Yes.

-Wow.

I can't wait to meet him, and I bet you can't.

No.

He sent me another picture too.

Oh!

I'm a grandma.

[laughs] [Davina] After an intensive search for the son Kirsty West gave up for adoption, he's been found, living just 25 miles away.

Today they will meet for the first time since Kirsty gave birth to him.

-[Davina] Hi.

-[Kirsty] Hello!

-Grab your coat.

We're going.

-Will do.

It's hard to believe, it's like a 25-year dream coming true.

-[laughing] -Come on.

[peaceful music playing] Definitely ready to meet her now, and I don't have any worries anymore.

Just excited now just to meet her and to say hello and to find things out.

-Hi, Nicky.

-James, how you doing?

-Not bad, how you doing?

-Great to see you.

Good to see you again.

[Davina] Kirsty has asked to meet James in one of her favorite places, Stockgrove Park in Bedfordshire.

-[indistinct chatter] -What are you gonna say?

Oh, I don't know.

I don't know what I'm gonna say, what to ask.

I think Kirsty will kind of know what to... -Yeah.

-...tell me about and know what I'd want to know.

'Cause there's a lot of questions I want answered and... Yeah, I'm just really intrigued as well.

There we go.

-You all right?

-I'm all right.

It's quite weird to think that he's here.

Very strange.

This bench up here is where you're gonna meet Kirsty.

Oh, God, thanks very much.

Cheers.

-All the best with it, okay?

-Thank you.

And we'll see you later.

Yeah, thanks ever so much for everything.

See you later.

[peaceful music playing] So, this is as far as we're going to go.

Good luck.

How lovely to see you.

Hello, nice to see you.

Oh, hello.

It's nice to finally see you.

[sighs] This has been quite a nerve-wracking day, hasn't it?

-Just a bit.

-Yeah.

-Oh, look at you, you're lovely.

-Oh, thanks.

-Wow.

-Do you wanna sit down?

Yeah, okay.

It's a nice place.

-It's gorgeous, isn't it?

-Yeah.

-You've not been here before?

-No, no.

This is... great, isn't it?

-It's crazy!

[laughing] -I know.

Can you believe it?

I know.

Crazy.

I am so glad that you didn't say no, though.

-I couldn't have said no.

-But I thought you would.

-Did you?

-Yeah.

-Why was that?

-I dunno.

No, I couldn't... you can't, like, have it like... just this letter in front of you saying your mum wants to meet you and then... turn your back on it 'cause you're thinking about it.

-Some people do, though.

-I wouldn't be able to do it, 'cause it'd just be itching at me all the time.

Yeah.

Thank you for that.

It really has made such a massive difference.

-Good.

-Really has.

God, I can't believe you're sitting there.

-I know, it's weird, isn't it?

-[laughing] Wow!

-Shall we go for a walk?

-Yeah, let's go for a walk.

Come on then.

This day has totally changed my life, yeah, completely.

I've got hope now that I never believed that I would have.

That section of my life, that... just seemed a mystery, kind of not knowing something about yourself that's just a blank spot in your past, that's now kind of been filled.

You know, hopefully it's just the beginning.

So, what you thinking now?

-[James exhales] I dunno.

-[Kirsty laughing] I was thinking let's get some food from the café.

-[Kirsty] Are you hungry?

-Yeah.

[contemplative music playing] [Davina] It's been one month since we told Jeannie Elgar the tragic news about her brother Geoffrey, who she last saw over 50 years ago when a Mr. and Mrs. Smith adopted him.

Jeannie has come to the island of Bermuda, where Geoffrey lived and died, to meet his adopted brother Robert.

Hopefully he will be able to tell her everything she wants to know about Geoffrey and his life.

Thank you.

Robert.

Robert!

-Thank you.

-Jeannie.

-Thank you.

-So good to see you.

-How are you?

-I'm fine.

-My little big sister.

-Yes.

-It's wonderful to see you.

-Come and sit down.

Then we can talk.

-It's so good to see you.

-So good to be here too.

You do remind me of Geoffrey because the smile is the same.

Really?

Good.

I'm sure you were naughty boys, were you naughty?

Well, not that naughty.

[laughing] Really?

Little, you know, -regular kids growing up.

-Yeah.

But we had a wonderful life, wonderful time.

You couldn't ask for better parents to be adopted by.

-Really?

-They were just super parents.

-Good.

-No, he had a good life.

-Yeah.

-A really, really good life.

That's good to hear 'cause I was worried.

I didn't know what had happened all those years, you know.

He spent quite a few times looking for you.

Well, it's good 'cause I always worried that he would not remember me at all and...

He was telling me about you when I was four years old.

-Really?

-Yeah.

-Oh, goodness.

-You know.

He remembered you and there wasn't a year that went by -he didn't talk about you.

-That's good.

And he used to go looking... Actually I dunno why Cardiff came into it, but he used to go thinking it was Cardiff.

Yes.

And he would go on little pub crawls.

-[laughing] -He would approach people and ask 'em, chat 'em up, and... -Really?

-Oh, yes.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, I was always encouraging, yeah, go look for 'em because as far as I was concerned, you know, his sister was my sister.

So... he had to find you.

And now you've got me.

Now I've got you.

My little big sister.

And I've got a brother again.

-Yes.

-Thank you.

But he did think about you a lot.

-That comforts me knowing... -Always on his mind.

Yes, so we must have been thinking of each other -at the same time.

-Yep.

[peaceful music playing] [gulls calling] [Robert] Now would you like me to give you a minute?

[Jeannie] Yes, thanks, Robert.

I feel I have maybe lost Geoffrey, but I feel that I've gained another brother in meeting Robert.

He's been so kind, to talk about Geoffrey and to know, I suppose, really what I wanted to hear, that Geoffrey had never forgotten me.

In my mind, she always has been my sister, it's just that I'd never seen her.

So this is wonderful.

[Davina] Next time, two women, both born in homes for unmarried mothers.

It was absolutely forbidden to talk about it, it was a dirty secret.

You know, in those days you were stoned in the marketplace for being an unmarried mother.

I want to find her because I've wanted to find her all of my life.

Your mother.

Wow.

To think that she didn't want to see me, wasn't interested, wouldn't even respond to me, would be heartbreaking, absolutely heartbreaking for me.

[peaceful music playing]