Reunited After 56 Years

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 892, 8 February 1930, Page 18

Reunited After 56 Years

Brother and Sister Meet on “Outback” Queensland Farm

i.M| i j S3-,-t IKE a fairy tale are the cii'cunxstances surroundiug the joyful reunion of a brother and sister after 56 years, during I j WFtorZA which time neither heard any news of the other. All the elements of romance are there. The playmates, brother and sister, best of pals. The marriage at an early age of the little sister, and the brother going out into the world to seek his fortune. And now, after 56 long years, a reunion between the childhood playmates —little sister, now an elderly and respected nurse with a family, and grandchildren, and the brother an aged wealthy Queensland squatter, and—a fervent vow never to be pai'ted again, but to spend the rest of their days together in a Sydney suburb. By the merest coincidence the reunion came about. A casual word dropped by a stranger, which struck a chord in the sister’s heart, and made her determined to find her brother, and despite her years to make a journey into far Queensland from Bathurst, in search of him. Parting of the Ways Nearly 60 years ago, Godfrey and Georgina Haywood, she a girl of 16, and her brother 18, rode horses, fished and played together on their parents’ station at Geoi-ge’s Plains, outside Bathurst. They were inseparable. In a few months, Georgina was to marry, and Godfrey was thinking about the future also. Soon after Georgina’s wedding, Godfrey said good-bye, and set out to make his fortune far afield. At first there were letters from him, but in a few years these ceased, and all trace of the wandering boy was lost. Georgina was now Mrs. Kelly, with all the obligations of a young married woman upon her, and she did not worry much about her brother. She went to live in Bathurst, and later on obtained her nurse’s certificate. Her family grew up, and she herself established a reputation as a nurse in the Bathurst district.

Often she called to mind the days back on George's Plains, and wondered with a sigh where Godfrey was living, if he were still alive, and why he had suddenly severed all contact with his parents and herself. The parents had died long since, but somehow, deep in her heart, she had an intuition that she would see her brother again. Would Return Some Day Her children married and her hair grey, she was drawing toward the evening of her life. Still she nursed the conviction that one day Godfrey would again speak to her. One day, a woman was visiting her daughter, Mrs. McGeechan, and while talking she mentioned a Mr. Haywood of Queensland. At the sound of the name, the old woman’s heart leaped, and pressing for further details she was convinced that the man was her brother. Despite her 72 years, she insisted on her daughter accompanying her to Dalby, Queensland, a tiring journey, and once there made inquiries from the police electoral rolls of Mr. Haywood’s whereabouts. She was informed that this particular man was one of the wealthiest squatters in the district, and she and her daughter drove out to his homestead. Walking in unannounced, the old lady gazed long and earnestly at a bearded old gentleman. Sure, now, that it was Godfrey, she said quietly: “I’m your sister.” “I can scarcely believe it,” replied the man, “after all these years—how did you find out where I was?” Overjoyed, and with thousands of questions to ask each other, the same Georgina and the same Godfrey vowed on the spot never to part again. For a few weeks the old lady and her daughter stayed at Dalby, and the other day they returned to Sydney. They now wait for the business affairs of the sheep station to be fixed up, when the wandering boy, now 74 years of age, will rejoin them, to live in comfort in one of Sydney’s suburbs.