Brother and sister's joy as they meet for the first time decades after mystery childhood phonecall from Canadian stranger

Christine Kitteringham joyfully hugs the brother she
never knew she had as they meet for the first time...
after 67 years apart.
The reunion on railway platform left her brother Jon
Entwistle, 74, equally overwhelmed. Afterwards he
called it “exciting and incredible.”
Jon was unaware he had another family until relatives
tracked him down in 2013.
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They revealed his mother Joan had moved to Canada
at the end of the Second World War after she fell in
love with an airman she had nursed back to health.
Jon had grown up believing his dad’s second wife,
Irene, was his mum.
The only hint this might not be true came when he
was 18 and he had a phone call from a man with a
Canadian accent who told him “your mum sends her
love”.
But his father wouldn’t explain the call and the
mystery went unresolved until Mr Entwistle was 71.
Joan, who died in 2004, had urged relatives to look for
the son she had been forced to leave behind in
Scarborough, North Yorks, and after some 30 years of
searching, a letter from Jon’s cousin Glen broke the
news of his family in Canada.
After speaking on Skype and learning more about each
other over the last four years, they finally met at York
Railway Station and have spent the past few days
together.
“It was very exciting and incredible,” said Mr
Entwistle, from Ampleforth.
“We saw each other on the platform from a few yards
away. She mouthed my name and that was it! It’s
great to see her and she is really fun.”
Jon, a retired chef and travel rep, has spent time
getting to know Christine, who has been staying with
him.
Christine’s father, Cyril Pann, was a gunner in the
Canadian air force and spent his 21st birthday in a
German Prisoner of War camp.
He met Joan and the couple fell in love. As part of
the divorce between Jon’s parents, a judge ruled Jon
had to stay with his father in England.
Christine was born in Bromley and lived there for two
years before the family left for Canada.
Jon added: “We have been speaking about how she
found out about me. My step mum and natural dad
never said a word about it because it was in the days
when you didn’t speak about those things. I had my
step mum who I always thought was my mum.”
Christine, 67, from Vancouver, said: “It’s been a
delight to meet Jon and I’ve been able to answer so
many questions he had.
“Mum had been looking for Jon for many years and
got in touch with the Salvation Army who tried to
trace him.
“Leaving Jon was something mum regretted her whole
life, but he has come to accept that he was loved

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