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\nSOURCE:YOUTUBE SCREENSHOT \u2013 TORONTO SUN<\/p>\n
Look to any historical conflict and see how many mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, and so on had to say goodbye for their safety.<\/p>\n
Mothers can sometimes give up their infants for adoption when circumstances are too unforgiving to raise a child.<\/p>\n
Gerda Cole was one such mother.<\/p>\n
\nSOURCE:YOUTUBE SCREENSHOT \u2013 TORONTO SUN<\/p>\n
The difficult times amidst World War II forced the Jewish woman to give up her daughter for adoption in 1942.<\/p>\n
The little girl, who wouldn\u2019t know who her real mother was, was adopted by a German couple living in England.<\/p>\n
Gerda was only 18 when this happened.<\/p>\n
Being a young mother is challenging enough. Imagine being one during a world war.<\/p>\n
That little girl, Sonya Grist, lived with her adoptive parents for the rest of her life.
\nShe would then become a mother to Stephen Grist, who would play an essential part in the rest of this story.<\/p>\n
So it came to be that another Jewish family had their lives upended by the Nazis.<\/p>\n
At least this time, they were both safe.<\/p>\n
The next part of the story would play when Stephen sought Austrian citizenship.<\/p>\n
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\nSOURCE:YOUTUBE SCREENSHOT \u2013 TORONTO SUN<\/p>\n
The Austrian government announced that anyone who would prove that their families departed Austria in the 1930s.<\/p>\n
Stephen knew his maternal grandparents (which Gerda was one of) were Austrian citizens at the time.<\/p>\n
Not wanting to pass up the opportunity, Stephen searched on as many ancestry websites as he could.<\/p>\n
There, he found some of the answers he was looking for and some he didn\u2019t expect to find.<\/p>\n
He became acquainted with his grandmother\u2019s stepson.
\nHe explained he was applying for Austrian citizenship and was requesting the stepson for Gerda\u2019s death certificate so he could complete the application process.<\/p>\n
The answer he got was incredible, to say the least.
\n\u201cYou\u2019re not going to find Gerda\u2019s death certificate because she\u2019s still alive and living in a nursing home in Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n
Well, they couldn\u2019t just sit around with this information.<\/p>\n
Sonya\u2019s mom was still alive! And it\u2019s about time they went to see her.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been 80 years, for goodness\u2019 sake! Sonya said, \u201cI want to get on an airplane to Canada right now and give her a big hug\u201d in CBC\u2019s story coverage.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still don\u2019t know much and there\u2019s a thousand questions I\u2019ve got to ask her,\u201d said Sonya<\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea that her mother was still alive and she would have the opportunity to meet her was so exciting, it just threw us all for a loop,\u201d Stephen went on to say<\/p>\n
The reunion took place on Saturday, May 7th, on her birthday.
\nThe celebration doubled as a birthday and reunion. It was a big moment for both mother and daughter.<\/p>\n
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\nSOURCE:YOUTUBE SCREENSHOT \u2013 TORONTO SUN<\/p>\n
\u201cI had very limited personal education, and this, combined with wartime, left me no recourse but to have my daughter Sonya adopted under the advice of the refugee committee.\u201d \u2013 Gerda said reading from a piece of paper<\/p>\n
But thanks to her grandson, she got to see the daughter she never got to raise.<\/p>\n
And they were able to share smiles and their first few memories.<\/p>\n
Gerda may be 98 now, but better late than never.<\/p>\n
Their first bonding day as mother and daughter revealed they both had a heart for music.<\/p>\n
Sonya was even in a steel band in her youth, though she tells her mother she wasn\u2019t particularly good.<\/p>\n