Pretoria News, Thursday December 21 2006
We re-unite family across oceans
Pretoria News brings you a happy tale as a counterpoint to the more frequent grim news.
There were tears, laughter and hugs in the offices of the Pretoria News yesterday as we witnessed a rare but emotional reunion – through a teleconference call to Canada – of a family who had been separated for more than 30 years.
Our involvement in the reunion started through a letter from Colleen Andrew, a former South African who is now based in British Columbia, Canada, who was desperately trying to trace her long-lost foster child – then known as Celia (her full name is Cecilia) Jacoba who she believed was now married but still living in South Africa.
Instead of publishing the letter, we asked Colleen to give us more information and send us pictures of what Celia looked like then so we could do an appeal story and hope the family could get together before Christmas.
Our story, together with a collage of pictures from a family album, was published on Tuesday (19 December). As fate would have it, Celia, now married and living in Waterkloof Heights with her second husband Chris Gibb and their 19-year-old daughter Nadia Oelofse, had an urge to buy the Pretoria News although she normally doesn’t read the paper.
She says she kept nagging her friend about getting a copy but then forgot. “I told a friend I wanted to buy the Pretoria News on Tuesday but forgot” Celia said. “When I got home another friend called me and said ‘They’re looking for you’ I asked who and immediately sent my daughter out to get a newspaper.”
After reading the story and seeing the pictures of herself together with the Andrews, Celia said she couldn’t sleep on Tuesday night thinking about Colleen and her husband Houlton Andrew – and how it would feel like to speak to them again.
The story of Celia Gibb and the Andrews started in the 1970s when the Andrews lived in Sabie and wanted to bring joy to a needy child by offering him or her a place to stay during school holidays. “It was early December,” recalled Colleen, “and I thought: ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to make just one child happy over Christmas?’”
The beneficiary of that kindness was Celia, who was then staying at the Bramley Children’s Home.
Colleen phoned the home and spoke to the matron. “She said they had a little girl who had not been taken out.”
The husband and wife drove from Sabie to Pretoria a few days later.
Said Colleen: “I will never forget how we got there at lunchtime and the matron said we must join her. In the corner was this lovely little girl looking at us. I just smiled at her and knew she was going to play an important part in my family.”
However, a series of mishaps and errors, including Celia’s wedding invitation getting lost, resulted in the Andrew Family emigrating to the UK without their foster child’s new address.
After making calls to the home for years without success, Colleen turned to the Pretoria News. When we contacted the home, we were told most records from the home had been destroyed and they couldn’t help us trace her. We then published Celia’s pictures and a description of her green eyes and brown curly hair when she was young. “She spent most of her holidays with us until she was 16,” said Colleen.
A day later, a tall and elegant Celia, fitting that description perfectly, sat in our offices next to her husband talking to an emotional Colleen and Houlton via tele-conference to Canada. It was 3 am in Canada when we put the call through.
While Colleen sounded groggy at first, immediately after Celia, now 44, told her who she was she was wide awake. Houlton ran to another phone in the house and the two of them were talking at the same time. He was saying: “It’s incredible, it’s incredible, I just can’t believe it”.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart,” Colleen kept saying. We had to keep the supply of tissues going on this side as tears flowed.
Celia said her memories of staying with the Andrews were good ones and she had been very close to their elder son, Jacque, who is now 36. When she started asking about Jacque her voice was quivering as she explained to Colleen and Houlton how she went to look for them once but didn’t find them.
During the call, Chris was quietly supportive of Celia and whispered to her that she must tell the Andrews about her daughters and her life.
At the other end of the line, Colleen would hop from one subject to the other, bringing in lots of different topics trying to catch up on more than 30 years in just a few minutes.
Colleen, whose daughter Tammy lives with her and Houlton, recalled that after phoning the Bramley Children’s Home, calling schools, radio stations and magazines without any luck, she turned to the Pretoria News to find the foster daughter whom she said she loved like her own child.
“We never stopped searching for her,” she said. “We tried many avenues. We loved Celia as our own and wanted to adopt her but circumstances would not allow it.
“You (Pretoria News) have given me back a part of my life that was missing. If only you know what these years have been like wondering if this child of mine was okay. This must be what it feels like to win the lottery.”
Colleen told Celia: “Hearing from you has made my life complete and now I know you are well and happy and we will never lose contact again.”
Colleen said this was the biggest Christmas for her and her husband as Jacque had just arrived from Texas and they had just met their first grandchild, whom he had brought with him.