Linda Lewis was tearful in her reunion with her twin sisters Dawn and Eve. For Linda, it was the culmination of a 65-year search. The twins vanished from the home when Linda was five years old. Linda was shocked and amazed to learn that she and her sisters lived a mere 8 miles away from each other. She told Davina McCall, “I don’t know why I’m crying, I’m so happy.”
Dawn and Eve, then named Jessica and Frances, were five months old when their father placed them for adoption. Their mother had gone into the hospital to have surgery. Sadly, she did not survive. Their father was left alone with five small children who desperately wanted their mom. Grief-stricken and struggling to go on in her absence, he made the heart-wrenching decision to place the babies with another family. Linda recalls, “They were never talked about again. Losing mum and then losing the twins was like one big bereavement. I felt like the complete family had been wiped out.”
The crew from ITV’s “Long Lost Family” was able to contact an intermediary who had access to the sealed adoption records. They were provided with enough information to aid in the search. Dawn and Eve had been adopted by an elderly couple, who had been very were strict and unaffectionate. The twins look back on their childhood and see unhappy memories. Their adoptive parents told them their mother had died during childbirth. Dawn and Eve never searched for their siblings because they feared they would be blamed for her death.
Once their parents passed away they requested copies of their original birth certificates. When they saw their mother’s signature on the forms, they knew the story had been a lie.
Dawn and Eve are excited to have their sister back, and they think of this as a way for them to start over as a family.
To begin your own search, check out this new adoption search training.
