For 70 years, Francis Holland wondered what had happened to his big brother.
Every night over those same 70 years, John Holland prayed for his missing brother, whom everyone called Frank. He taught his five children to do the same.
The brothers searched for each other a few times over the years, without success.
But nine days ago, they reunited for the first time in all those decades — a tearful reunion made possible by a serendipitous conversation at a hospital and the resourcefulness of a lab assistant who was moved to help.
Frank, now 83 and living in California, went to Kaiser Permanente San Rafael this spring to have cancerous skin cells removed from his nose.
The nurse, Maryanne Smith, was sweet and chatty. Frank confided that his wife had died in 2006 and they had no children. But he once had a brother, he told her, wondering aloud whether the boy he knew as Junior was still alive.
The nurse insisted he meet a lab assistant, Gabrielle Albrecht, who worked down the hall and who had once been a private investigator.
"I felt sad for him," says Albrecht. "He kept saying he's all alone. Most of his friends had passed on."
She did some Google searches and came up with a few options. When she had narrowed down the possibilities, she picked up the phone.
The first six calls she made were dead ends.
Then, she tried a John Holland III in Chattanooga, Tenn.Read the rest of the story HERE.
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