At the beginning of March, ITV launched its own take on the award-winning British series, Long Lost Family. As the name suggests, the show gives people a chance to find long lost relatives. For some, this is their last port of call, and the long sought-after reunions that do come to pass are some of the most compelling and tear-jerking TV you’ll ever see.
Of course, you don’t have to go on a TV show to stand a chance of finding a long lost relative. As you’ll see, it can happen anywhere, from a classroom to an online gaming site.
Diane DiProspero-Cook and Karen Cometa-Zempel
When these two long lost sisters met, they had no idea about their shared parentage -- Cometa-Zempel was teaching a business preparation class and DiProspero-Cook was one of her students. Both women were adopted as infants, and it wasn’t until the New York State Adoption Registry notified them that they share a biological mom that they found out their relationship went far beyond the four corners of their classroom.
Elaine Walker and Jackie Green
Walker had known she had a long lost sister named Jackie since she was 25. She and her family had spent years searching, but it wasn’t until the heir-hunting organization Finders was able to provide them with a last name -- Green -- that their search started to seem less like an exercise in futility. After doing a search on Facebook, Walker found Green, but what she didn’t expect was that she had actually been playing bingo with her sister on BingoPort for the past nine years!
Jordan Dickerson and Robin Jeter
Dickerson wasn’t really that into track and field; she had joined her high school track team just so she could squeeze in a bit of exercise into her busy student schedule. During one inter-high track meet, however, Dickerson got a lot more than she expected when her teammates noticed that one of their rival runners bore a striking resemblance to her. Dickerson, who had known that she was adopted, struck up a friendship with the rival runner, Jeter, and the two quickly came to the correct conclusion that they were sisters.
There are few things more heartwarming than stories of people finding each other in this cluttered existence we call life, and it’s even better when it’s long long family finally getting a chance to connect.
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