A German pensioner's "wish came true" when he met his Scouse sister for the first time this week.
For decades, Raimund Schmalbeins, 75, wondered who his real dad was after his nan gave him photos and love letters sent to his mum from Liverpool by World War Two veteran Jim Miller. Raimun's mum died in 1980 having spent the rest of her life with a man who Raimund grew up knowing as his father.
Raimund only found out abut his biological father after reading about him in the old letters. He made several trips to Liverpool since finding the letters in 1986, including last autumn.
With the help of his neighbour Ralf and Leonie Jakobie, a German musician in Liverpool, he searched for a Carlton Terrace in Crosby from which the letters were addressed but no such street exists. So in a final attempt to find his family, Raimund spoke to the ECHO, who published an article with photos of Jim Miller who died never knowing he had a German son.
At the time, Ralf said: "After searching for so long, it would be nice to find an answer at least."
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On December 20, 2021, the father of a newborn baby bought a copy of the ECHO so he could one day show his daughter the paper printed the day she was born. Flipping through, he paused on a photo of Jim Miller, thinking 'That's my great-great-grandad!'. Word soon passed to the man's great-grandmother Evelyn.
Now in her 80s, Evelyn was one of Jim's two daughters and four sons who grew up in a terraced house on Mill Street, Dingle. The Royal Artillery veteran had more than 20 grandchildren. Evelyn described her dad as a "very quiet man" who loved snooker, played the flute and used to work as a tram conductor and at the Dunlop factory.
After speaking over Zoom, Evelyn and her daughter Sonia have now met Raimund, his wife Geli, their son and grandson, their neighbours Ralf and his wife and kids, and also Leonie Jakobie. When Raimund visited Liverpool last week Evelyn pinched the cheek of her newfound little brother, saying: "I'm made up. I'm so happy."
Sonia described the chain of events as "absolutely amazing", saying: "I'm really happy that we've all met. I just want to say thank you for Ralf and to all the family for coming over with Raimund and Geli. They've just made our time absolutely fantastic. It's brilliant."
Raimund and Sonia chatted and flicked through copies of the ECHO from December 20 while listening to music at Ian Prowse Monday Club in The Cavern Pub, where Leoni and one of Ralf's daughters performed. The group went for dinner on Lark Lane, visited the Miller family home on Mill Street, and introduced Raimund to Jim Miller for the first time at his grave in Allerton Cemetery.
His neighbour Ralf said: "Raimund is feeling very, very happy about all that has happened. We didn't dream that this would come true, that he would meet and have new family. It's heartwarming. We expected nothing. In my view, Raimund's father would be dead because he's more than 100 years old, so we would perhaps find a cemetery and go there and say 'bye bye'.
"But that there is a whole family of Millers occupying Liverpool, we couldn't imagine. There are Millers everywhere! So we're very happy about this, and also the Scousers and all the people are so helpful. We will definitely come back."
He added: "Thank you so much to the Liverpool ECHO for helping us out with this amazing story. We are also happy to meet family and the Millers will also come to Germany to Duisburg in the German 'steel belt'."
