The woman finds brother that she never knew it existed after 80-year separation

After almost 80 years apart, a woman has been related with the brother she never knew she had.

Shortly after Marian Griffin was born in 1945, she was placed in fetal care and was then adopted by a Lutheran minister and his family, she told ABC News.

It was not until July 2024 that Griffin was told that she had an older brother, Donald Hefke, who was still alive and had been looking for her for most of her life.

“I thought it was a scam,” Griffin, now 80, told the outlet to the life -changing news she learned from Hefke’s daughter, Denise Baker, who has also spent decades to try to find her long -lost relative.

Hefke is one year older than Griffin, but they were both children when placed in fetal care in 1946. Their biological mother suffered from post traumatic stress disorder after Griffin’s birth and institutionalized, while their biological father could not take care of them, according to ABC News. Another sibling, their brother Ernest, was born deaf and has since died.

Hefke, now 81, was bred by a foster family until he joined the US Air Force. In 1963, who wanted to learn more about his biological family, he requested information from the fetus agency and was told that he had a sister named Marian, according to the outlet.

But his attempt to get in touch with his younger sister was prevented by her adoptive parents, who hid their letters, according to ABC News.

“Our children could have grown up together, instead we were separated because my parents would not say that my brother wrote to me and was looking for me,” Griffin told the outlet.

Baker later continued his father’s investigative work and looked for two decades for her missing aunt – but it was not until she discovered a family connection online, who had been uploaded by Griffin’s son, that she found the person she was looking for.

“I still can’t believe he found me,” Griffin said.

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When Griffin confirmed that the connection was real, she spoke with Hefke on the phone.

“He says .. ‘Mariane, Mariane is you? Oh my goodness, I’ve been looking for you Mariane!’ “She remembers in an interview with ABC Affiliate KRCR TV. “He couldn’t even stop saying my name.”

While Hefke cannot travel from his home in Florida because of his health, Baker visited Griffin in California instead, according to ABC News. Now Griffin plans to make a trip to see her lost siblings.

“Oh, it would be wonderful even for a few days,” she told KRCR. “We have 80 years to catch up.”