77-year-old reunites with daughter after 51 years
The last time 77-year-old Tony Brown and daughter Katie Bergin, 51, laid eyes on each other was when Bergin was only nine months old. Ever since, she’s been searching for her dad with the little information given to her by her mother.
“My mother was independent, six years older than dad, and decided to do things for herself,” Bergin told the Border Mail. “All she told me about my dad was that his name was Anthony Brown and he was originally from Wales.”
With only a very common name to go by, Bergin didn’t have much luck tracking her father down on her own. However, after a TV producers saw her call out for help on Facebook, they got in contact.
“In England, we have a BBC program called Heir Hunters, and the owner saw my plea and decided to see if he could help,” she explained. “It took him about five hours to get back to me, and he said, ‘This gentleman is not in the UK,’ and I went, ‘Just my bloody luck.’”
Soon, however, they had gotten hold of Brown’s phone number through his brother – and it just happened to be an Australian number.
“When I called, it was a flood of tears,” she admitted. “We both couldn’t speak. Within a month, I flew out and arrived here on May 2.”
When they finally reunited, Bergin discovered she wasn’t the only one searching for answers. Brown and a barrister friend managed to track down his former fling, Anne, to the Channel Islands, but the clues ended there. Believing he’d reached a dead end, he moved to Australia in 1975 to start a new life.
Brown, who married a woman named Marge, received the surprise of his life when Bergin got in contact, and an even bigger one when he learned he had a 21-year-old granddaughter, Grace.
“There’s someone watching over me and Katie and they’ve brought us together, I’m certain of it.”
Image credit: James Wiltshire/Border Mail.