Five siblings in Nova Scotia are making up for lost time after spending decades apart.
Following changes to improve access to provincial adoption records, the Hiltz siblings reunited with their long-lost brother, who was adopted by another family at birth.
Looking at them now, you would never know that Peggy, Donnie, Dave, Philip and John hadn’t grown up together; they joke, laugh and tease each other just like any other group of siblings would.
But it hasn’t always been this way.
“When I was probably nine or 10 years old, I found out from another member of the family that we had a brother that was given up for adoption,” recalled Peggy Cleveland.
“We had not known where he was, or who he was.”
In 2022, Nova Scotia opened the Adoption Records Act, providing better access to information for adopted people, birth parents and siblings.
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That’s when Cleveland knew it was her chance.
“I’m like, ‘Hey! I could do that,’” she said. “Actually, I’m probably one of the first applications they received.”
After more than a year of waiting, Cleveland finally heard back from a case worker who had found her brother. They had a name: John Armstrong.
“As soon as I messaged everybody that we had a name, oh my gosh, the pictures of these John Armstrongs that were coming in,” Cleveland recalled.
Her brother, Philip Hiltz, recalled the frenzy to find their brother.
“I found one in Scotland who’s a sheep farmer I think,” he said.
The John Armstrong they were looking for, it turned out, lived only 20 kilometres away in the area around Lunenburg, N.S.
“We had interacted, unbeknownst to any of us, so many times over the years,” Armstrong said.
The first time they connected, Cleveland said she was in tears.
“She sent me his contact information. … In within, like, 10 minutes, I’m texting him,” she said.
The siblings met up at a tavern in Chester, N.S., and they all agree that Armstrong immediately fit in.
“I think it’s the sense of humour,” Hiltz said. “We don’t even think about it anymore.”
The family says that the last few months have been nothing short of incredible — and filled with reunions and new memories.
If anyone is looking for a lost relative, Hiltz says he has one clear message:
“Don’t give up.”
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