I knew I had a sister… but it took me 50 years to find her: Grandfather burst into tears when he finally solved the mystery of his long-lost sibling

It was only after his brother’s death that John Richards decided to look for the little sister he had only heard of once, 50 years earlier.

He knew almost nothing about her, except that she was about seven or eight years old when he was twenty-five, and that she was the reason his father had left his mother, for the second time, never to return.

But John was committed.

“It’s always been on my mind, especially since my brother died. I thought – I’m alone. I have two wonderful sons, a wonderful wife, but I would like to know: is she alive?’

Here begins the new RTÉ Radio Documentary on One, Paper Girl. In the programme, John Richards, 74, a native of Cork, embarks on a quest to solve a mystery that has haunted him for nearly five decades.

John and his wife Nell have two children and two grandchildren. They are a close-knit family and John and Nell celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on October 6.

“Dad’s a bit soft,” admits his son Keith – though he can be counted on to keep their family together – a reflex, perhaps, from his troubled childhood.

John’s father, John Joseph Alfred Richards – also known as John Snr – first disappeared when John was just four years old.

The details John’s mother, Sheila, gave him about his father were few: he was born in Wales, grew up in Ireland, served in the army and worked in England. He was on a trip to England when he disappeared.

“She never talked about it at any stage in our lives,” says John. “We just took it and left it at that. And we were happy’.

For single mother Sheila, raising two sons in the 1950s and 60s, life was complicated. She made her living mopping floors, washing and ironing and generally trying to make the most of it.

“She was brilliant,” says Nell, who first met Sheila when she and John started dating.

“You’d think she didn’t have a worry in the world. That was her way.’

Then, in the early 1970s, a letter arrived from Sheila’s husband asking if she could come home. Sheila, after discussing it with her sons, agreed.

So, nearly two decades after telling schoolmates his father was dead, John – now 25 – was ready to see him again.

At this point, John says, he didn’t remember his father. For John Snr, the home he would return to was equally unknown. “He left two young children and returned to two grown men,” adds Nell.

At first, everything seemed fine. John Jnr and Nell got married and from a photo taken on their wedding day, you’d never guess the proud papa had just walked into their lives.

Then, just 18 months after his reappearance, John Snr received a letter. This letter, 50 years later, still haunts John Jnr, but at the time he did not discuss it with either parent. It was a little girl who threatened John Snr that if he didn’t return to England, he would be sent with a tag around his neck to Ireland. Just a week later, John Snr, once again, left.

The whole family, once united in advance, was destroyed, especially Sheila.

“She was heartbroken,” says Nell. ‘The life was gone from her. She continued the same way as always, but she deflated.’

Sheila never got over the second betrayal. She loved her grandchildren and tried to get on with life. But in the early 1980s, she was diagnosed with cancer and died at the age of 59.

However, it wasn’t until the death of John Donal’s brother in 2020 that he began his own quest to find his missing sister – bringing in genealogist PJ Hogan to aid his search.

PJ and John – and journalist Shauna McGreevy, the show’s producer – delved into birth and death records, DNA testing, military archives and Ancestry.com in what ended up being a time-consuming, multi-pronged search. blind.

Then PJ found John Snr’s death certificate. John’s father, they discovered, was the father of five other children – all born between 1955 and 1968, and most likely all still alive.

For John Jnr it was an emotional moment – ​​’There are seven of us,’ he whispers.

Nell, supporting her husband throughout his journey, also had a realization.

“I can see both sides now,” she says. “I can see their mother and his mother. There were five children in England and two here, so what do you do?’

PJ advised John to write a letter to the address on the death certificate and hope for the best.

But John’s son got there first – via Instagram. He noticed a name that looked promising and sent her a short message, explaining the situation. She answered and they called the next morning.

With that, the paper girl – who for a long time had only been in John’s mind – became Karen, a 50-year-old English woman.

“I stopped for a minute when she said hello,” John says, “and I started crying.”

‘And we just talked. But before we finished, she said, ‘There’s a word I don’t like – half-sister,’ and I said, ‘Oh why not?’ And she said, “Because you are my brother.”

John and Karen haven’t met yet, but hope to before Christmas.

‘I am not blaming anyone. It’s just life isn’t it,” says Karen.

The Girl From The Letter will be broadcast today at 2pm on RTÉ Radio 1.