Top photo: Editor / Own photo, via Wikimedia Commons
Children remember the things they said far longer than the grown-ups who heard them. On 19 May 2011, the fifth episode of ITV’s Long Lost Family began with a man who had carried one sentence from his childhood for more than 40 years. Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell also met two sisters who had never stopped looking for the youngest member of their family.
The Words a Little Boy Could Not Take Back
Wane Leyland was 49 and living in Blackpool with his partner and son. When he was seven, his parents divorced, and his father, Terry, would come to visit. During one of those visits, Wane told his dad he didn’t want to see him again.
Terry stopped coming. For the rest of his life, Wane believed his own words had driven his father away. He searched for more than 20 years, but he had very little to go on.
A Clue in the Spelling
The breakthrough came from something small. Terry’s name was spelled in an unusual way on Wane’s birth certificate, with an “a” in it. That helped the researchers find his birth record, and then a sister, who told them Terry had emigrated to Australia.
A search in Adelaide led nowhere, so they turned to Queensland. There they found him, in the rural town of Wondai. Terry had left Britain in 1970 as one of the “Ten Pound Poms,” the British migrants who travelled to Australia on heavily reduced fares. He had become a master builder, retired the year before, and was married to a woman named Helen.
A Father’s Side of the Story
Nicky Campbell went to see him at home in Wondai. Terry was overjoyed to be found. He explained that he had suffered a breakdown after the divorce, and that he regretted leaving. It was a very different story from the one a seven-year-old boy had told himself all those years.
Terry flew back to Britain, returning to Blackpool for the first time in about 40 years. Father and son met on the promenade, close to the beach where they had once built sandcastles together. Wane said his father told him he still loved him.
The Youngest of Six
The second story came from Croydon. Wendy Brotherwood and her sister Sharon were looking for their younger sister, Sarah Wade, the youngest of six children.
Sarah had been through a terrible time. Their mother died of cancer, and their stepfather, Jim, died about a year later. At 22, Sarah had lost both of them and the family home as well. She told her family she was moving to North London. Then her phone and email stopped working. When they went to the address she had given them, a stranger answered the door.
For 13 years, they heard nothing.
Found at the Same Address
The researchers first ruled out the worst by checking death records. Then they worked through the electoral rolls and narrowed the search to London. They found a Sarah Wade at the very same North London address the family had visited years before.
The team wrote to her, and she agreed to talk. Sarah explained that she had been severely depressed. She had stayed away because she feared rejection and didn’t want her family to see her struggling.
Wendy and Sharon had only ever wanted to find her. The three sisters were reunited on the beach at Selsey, where the family had gone on holiday when the girls were young. Sarah apologised for disappearing, and they were together again.
Why These Stories Stay With Us
Both stories are about silence, and how easily it can grow. A boy thought his father left because of him. A family thought a sister did not want them. In each case, the truth turned out to be kinder than the fear.
Is there someone you have lost touch with and still think about? Have you ever been reunited with a relative after many years? We would be honoured to hear your story.
Sources
- TVmaze: Long Lost Family 1×05
- PBS: Long Lost Family, Season 1 Episode 5
- Montana PBS: Long Lost Family, Season 1 Episode 5
- ABC iview: Long Lost Family S1 Episode 5
