A gran was convinced that her missing brother was dead until seeing a Facebook post. Lillian Carlton, 65, says she had not seen or heard from her sibling for 17 years, reports the Liverpool Echo.
The 65-year-old says her brother, John Ellington, left her late sister's house over a decade ago and was never heard from again. Lilian from near Liverpool claims that he fell off the face of the earth after the fateful evening.
She said: "I thought he was dead. The last time I saw him was at my sister Ann's house and he just disappeared one day.
"He walked away from everything." However, there was a shock twist to the tale when care home staff posted about resident John revealed wishing to be reconnected to his family once again for Christmas.
The 77-year-old has advanced dementia but recalled how he drifted apart from his family and reminisced about his childhood in with them to carers at Aaron Grange Care Home.
After the pensioner shared his Christmas wish with staff at the care home in Merseyside, they came up with a plan to share an appeal on Facebook on John's behalf. The post read: "I work for a care home in Huyton and have a resident whose Christmas wish is to get back in touch with his family, so I am appealing for some help, does anyone know of Ann or Joan, sisters of John Ellington, if you could get in touch you would be making an elderly man's dream come true.
"Merry Christmas." The social media post went viral with more than 2,000 people sharing the message.
Not long after messages soon came flooding in from those that knew John or his family. Lillian's friend soon passed the message onto her.
The 65-year-old then visited the care home the next day, December 13, to be reunited with her brother for the first time in 17 years. Lillian said: "I was very nervous but excited and emotional.
"I just thought 'I've got my brother back' it was a mix of emotions. I couldn't believe it.
"Seeing John again, my whole childhood has come flooding back to me, with some amazing memories. I’m so overwhelmed.
“John has a lot of nieces and nephews who are really excited to be reunited with him. They never called him Uncle John when growing up, they called him soldier John."
Despite his advanced dementia, Lillian said John remembered who she was and shared an old joke with his sister from his time in the army. Lillian said: "He just disappeared one day and nobody heard from him.
"I always thought they fell out. When we were at the home I asked him 'why did you go out of my life?'
"Because we were always close when he came home from the army on leave. I said 'where have you been?'
"He said 'I haven't been so far away, I've been right here.' He said 'I went out for spuds and a pint one day and never went back.'
“John was in the army for over 18 years and then, when he left, he would holiday around the world – Turkey being his favourite destination. Because there were nine of us, it was hard to keep in contact all the time.
"Anne, our eldest sister, was the peacekeeper of the family and any family gatherings would be organised by her. When she passed away, these happened less and less."
Lillian added: "I'll never be able to thank the staff for everything they've done it's incredible."
Amy Muscatelli, activities coordinator at Aaron Grange Care Home, said: “John was over the moon we were able to find Lillian and arrange the meet up. He was blown away we were able to get them back in contact and so thankful the staff had gone to the trouble of fulfilling his Christmas wish.
“We’re all so pleased for John and his family. We all cried happy tears together when they were finally reunited.”
Ellen Sharp, customer relations officer for the Hill Care Group, said: “I would like to thank those who helped share the post on Facebook, particularly the “Chat and Share Prescot” group and the “Rainhill Rocks” group, which are some of the communities the post reached and helped lead us to Lillian. Without them we couldn’t have brought John and his family back together again.”
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