The story of this reunion is quite enjoyable. On her 98th birthday, Gerda Cole was given the gift that was both the greatest and the most unexpected. After an interval of eighty years, she finally managed to reunite with her daughter, Sonya Grist.
Everyone was taken aback by the unexpected family reunion, which was made possible due to the strength of character of Stephen Grist, son to Sonya and grandson to Gerda.
He claims that his mother’s adoptive parents were discreet about the situation, and that despite her efforts over the years to locate them, she was unable to do so. As a result, she came to the conclusion that her mother had passed away.
During World War II, Gerda was a young girl who was trying to escape what she faced in Austria.
Living alone in England at the age of 18, she did not have the financial resources necessary to care for a kid, so she placed her newborn daughter for adoption.
The woman said, “I had very little personal knowledge, and this, along with the situation of that time, gave me no alternative except to have Sonya adopted under the suggestion of the shelter committee, but the requirement was to have absolutely no additional contact with the kid in any kind.”
When Sonya found out that her mother was still alive and that she was set to celebrate her 98th birthday, she immediately booked a journey to Canada from the United Kingdom so that she could finally see her mother in person.
“I still don’t know much, and there are a thousand things I need to ask her, but I don’t want to overwhelm her,” Sonya said.
The two have come to realize that they have many things in common already, such as a love of traveling and an appreciation for music played by steel bands.