47 years ago, Ed Gill and his then-wife decided to separate. The two had a daughter, Andrea, who had to stay with her mother.
Ed married again and had another daughter, Alicia, and she and Andrea got along from the first day they met. Then sadly, Ed’s family relocated to Sydney, Australia for work.
Ed tried to take Andrea with him but her mother wouldn’t allow it. And once Ed moved, he wasn’t allowed to have any contact with his daughter and all letters and presents he sent never reached her.
Eventually the father and daughter lost track of each other, even though they so wanted to reconnect.
But then one day Alicia checked her Facebook page, and Andrea had sent her a friend request and left her a message on her wall saying, “Hey, I know you.”
"When I read the message, I was shocked," Alicia said. "I just couldn't believe this was happening. I didn't think I'd ever get to see my stepsister again.”
The two immediately made plans to see each other and there wouldn’t be any need for cross-Atlantic flights now. Alicia and Ed had moved back to the States in the 1980s and are now living in Florida while Andrea lives in Pennsylvania.
So it was just a few hours on a plane before Andrea was walking down the hallway of the Tampa Bay airport and running to her Dad and step-sister for a big emotional hug.
Now after finding each other on Facebook, Andrea says she doesn’t need it because now she has everything she’s ever wanted.
"How I found my family this go-round, it blows my mind because it only took about 20 minutes," she said. "I've got nothing else to say (on Facebook), look at what I've got,I don't need anything else."
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Photos courtesy of Alicia Buchanan
