Finding long-lost sister like 'winning the lottery' for Charlottetown man

Just before Dan Darte's mother passed away about 25 years ago, she let him in on a family secret: he has an older sister who was put up for adoption.

It wasn't a complete surprise, Darte said. He had heard rumours growing up on P.E.I. in the 1960s but it wasn't something his mother talked about.

When she became ill with liver cancer in the mid-1990s, Darte said he and his brothers knew it was time to ask.

"It was a very difficult conversation but we had it and it was all OK," he said. "I don't blame my mother or anything like that. It was a different time."

Adopted by Air Force family

After his mother's funeral, Darte set out to find his long-lost sister. He went to P.E.I.'s adoption agency and told them everything he knew about her: she was adopted by an Air Force family, her birth mother's maiden name, and when she was born.

It was like talking with my mom because she sounds so much like her.— Dan Darte

Last spring, more than two decades later, he received a call from P.E.I.'s Department of Family and Human Services saying they located his sister, Debra Jennings, in B.C.

They connected over the phone shortly afterward and became Facebook friends.

Last Sunday, she flew to Charlottetown where they met in person for the first time.

Darte said he felt "euphoria." 

"It was like talking with my mom because she sounds so much like her," he said. They have the same nose, he said, and other physical similarities he was happy to see.

"I'm no longer the shortest sibling," he joked.

It was "very emotional" to connect with Darte by phone last year, Jennings said, adding the conversation was "hardly talking, more crying."

"I felt home," talking to him, she said. 

When she stepped off the plane to be greeted by her brothers Sunday it was "wonderful," she said through tears. 

Lots of catching up

It's the first time Jennings has been on P.E.I. since she was a child. She had also been searching for family for years.

They plan to go deep-sea fishing and do other "tourist" activities before she heads back to B.C. in a couple weeks.

In the meantime, they've been doing a lot of catching up. Like Darte, Jennings is married with two grown children. She had questions about her birth mother's health, Darte said.

Jennings is also spending time with her other brother, Harvey. A third brother, Willie, passed away in 2017.

Darte said finding his sister after all these years is like "winning the lottery."

"It's amazing because we honestly did not believe in our lifetime that we would ever meet our sister. And we didn't give up, and out of the blue it happened. So if you believe somebody is out there for you, don't give up."

"We've been having a really good time," agreed Jennings, who says the families plan to visit back and forth in the future.

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