You often hear of adoptees who fantasize about running into their biological family during their everyday errands. They speak about locking eyes with someone at the grocery store and knowing immediately they’re related. It may seem like a long shot; but for one Liverpool woman, it would have been entirely possible.
Sammie Wilson, 41, who was adopted when she was 5 years old, learned she’d grown up within a five-minute walk of her grandfather’s house.
More from LittleThings: 90-Year-Old Placed Baby Girl Up For Adoption. 70 Years Later, She’s Standing Behind Her
Sammie learned she was adopted when she was 16, The Liverpool Echo reported. By the time she turned 18, she had gotten birth records and began searching for her family. She reunited with her mother, father and brother. She was shocked when she learned where her grandfather, Cyril Fletcher, lived.
“It just so happened that he lived round the corner from my house, legit a five minute walk, I could have walked past him in the street. I eventually plucked up the courage and knocked on the door and when he answered he knew exactly who [I] was instantly, it had been 20 years,” she explained.
More from LittleThings: 15-Year-Old Mom Puts Baby Up For Adoption, 35 Years Later He Says He’s Standing Behind Her
Sammie says she’s not entirely sure how her grandfather ended up in Blackpool, when he’s originally from St. Helens. He’s suffered a stroke and can’t speak all that clearly now. Still, Sammie is interested to learn more about this side of the family.
She’s learned that her grandfather has a brother named Roy, who likely still lives in St. Helens.
Despite reuniting with her parents, they’ve since died. “Mum was 62 when she died from pneumonia, it was lovely to spend those years with her, our relationship was lovely in the end,” Sammie told The Echo.
Sadly, the time she got to spend with her father was even shorter. “And my dad was amazing when I finally found him, by the time I found him we only had five months together because he died from cancer that same year, at 47. It was lovely to reconnect, I just wish we had got longer. [In that time] he managed to meet my eldest child, he saw the birth of his first grandchild and watched me get married.”
Now, Sammie, a mom of four, is on a mission to get in contact with all remaining family members.
“It would be nice to find the rest of my biological family because I haven’t got anyone left, except for my grandad, Cyril Fletcher, and brother,” she explained. “I want to find him [Roy], he is the last of my biological family. … There is another child in a picture I have with Roy and I want to know who the child is. I have questions. It would be so nice to find my real family because I have children I want them to meet. Family is everything to me.”
