After More Than 40 Years, Siblings Reunite Online
A quick online search connected a woman to a brother she never knew she had.
May 26, 2009— -- Classmates.com advertises that it can help users "find high school friends, plan reunions," but for one Mobile, Ala. pastor, the Web site led to an incredible family reunion 40 years in the making with a sister he never knew.
48-year-old pastor Joseph Lett first harnessed the power of social networking to attract young people to his ministry through Myspace or track down old Navy buddies through Classmates.com.
But everything changed for Joseph when one day, he decided to do a simple search for a sister named Patricia who his mother, Lilly Bell Lett, had told him about when he was just 10 years old. He grew up with four other siblings, but knew that one was missing.
"All she was was just a name," Joseph told "Good Morning America." "No one knew what happened to her, where she was."
Meanwhile, Patricia was 2,000 miles away in Sacramento, Calif. raising her own family with six grown children, but always wondering about the life that was taken from her. Given up at birth, Patricia never knew her biological family. Her first foster mother died and another kicked her out of the house.
"I remember looking up in the sky when I was 10 and I was out in the front yard and I said to the Father, 'Could I just have a family that loves me? Could you just give me people that love me? Just take me to a home where people love me,'" she said.
Then, less than a month ago, Patricia updated her online profiles on Match.com and Myspace by adding more pictures and writing about her past in foster care.
That's when Joseph decided to do a search on Classmates.com for his long-lost sister on a whim.
"I went online and I typed in Patricia Lett under the search and her picture showed up," he said. "The picture spoke a thousand words."
Joseph immediately recognized the spitting image of his mother in Patricia's face.
He immediately sent an e-mail to the Classmates.com account, but Patricia did not respond. So then he tried to track her down on Myspace and was eventually successful.
