‘We had given up hope’: A family reunion decades in the making
Posted September 1, 2023 6:51 pm.
Retired Toronto news anchor Jack Roe relentlessly searched for his brother for nearly 25 years, but that quest has finally ended. He has found him on the other side of the world.
The 70-year-old Roe says he and his sister, 81-year-old Maureen Scott, had no idea they had a brother until their father died in 1999. That’s when family members told them that their mother had another child.
His name was Paul Wavish, and he was born in a small village in Scotland in 1944. The search for Paul spanned over two decades and at first did not turn up anything.
“It had been 23 years. We never thought it was going to happen. In fact, we had given up hope,” said Roe.
Last August, Scott says they received a message from a young woman in New Zealand who saw their billboard on Ancestry.ca, which changed everything.
“The message read ‘the particulars you listed about the person you are looking for closely matched my grandfather, whose name is also Paul,'” said Scott.
Roe says she shared a photo of her grandfather in his 20s.
“It immediately rang a bell with me. I twinned it with one of our uncles — a photograph of him at the same age, and the two of them looked as if they were brothers, and that’s when the hair went up on the back of our neck,” said Roe.
Family reunion many years in the making
Roe and Scott determined that 79-year-old Paul Wavish, who had moved from the United Kingdom to New Zealand as a child and who was unaware he had been adopted, was, indeed, their half-brother.
They booked a trip to New Zealand this year to meet their brother in person for the first time. Their first meeting took place in the airport.
The 70-year-old Roe says he and his sister, 81-year-old Maureen Scott, had no idea they had a brother until their father died in 1999. That’s when family members told them that their mother had another child. Photo: CityNews submission.
“There’s the two of us running with our arms out running down the corridor, and Paul saying here they are. It was amazing. It was unbelievable, really,” said Scott.
Wavish said when his brother and sister arrived in New Zealand, they just clicked, and it was like they had never been apart.
The siblings say once the tears stopped, it was a family reunion. Roe and Scott stayed in New Zealand for almost a month, but it wasn’t enough. They plan on returning to get to know their brother on the other side of the world.
“When they arrived here, it was just like we cut to talking like we had never been apart,” said Wavish. “We just grasped each other… It was a very emotional moment for me.”
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