At school, I loved French. For examination purposes, one of the stock questions was :- "Tu as des frčres ou des soeurs?" My answer was always: "Non, je suis enfant unique!" (If your French is rusty or non-existent, here is a translation:- "Do you have any brothers or sisters?" "No, I'm an only child.")
I always envied my fellow pupils who had brothers and sisters as I had no-one to share anything with or play with at home. My parents split up in 1956, when I was eight, my mother and I moving out.
She subsequently met and married someone else and I had a fabulous 
stepfather.
I continued seeing my father for some while after we left him, but when mum remarried she told my father that my stepfather would take responsibility for me and I didn't see my father again.
My stepfather died in 1992 and I was devastated.
Some years later, around 2002, I decided to try to find my biological father. I searched online and wrote to a couple of likely people, but had no reply.
March 31st 2003 was the beginning of one of the most extraordinary weeks of my life. At the time, people said that if my story of that week had been told, no-one would have believed it - too far-fetched, couldn't possibly happen like that in real life..... but it did happen, just like this...
Mum was in hospital. She had been suffering from emphysema for very many years, but on that Monday, the Discharge Nurse had asked to see me to discuss looking after mum when she came out of hospital later that week. We discussed Nursing Homes, Home Help and similar things. I told Mum I would ring a couple of Nursing Homes the following day.
That evening, I was doing schoolwork on the computer and had an email from FriendsReunited about their sister site, GenesConnected (now called GenesReunited). It is a site about Family Trees. Mum and I had been trying to do our Family Tree and I had always been interested in it. I went to the site and saw the search engine to look for people who are listed in other trees. I put in my father's name, using all three christian names and his surname. Immediately, his name came up in someone's tree - Claire Waters. I had never heard this name before, but sent her a message, asking if it was the same person. With the four names matching, I felt certain I had the right person.
The following day I was in school, teaching, as usual. At about 2.30, the school secretary came into my classroom, saying that Mum's ward sister was on the phone. Mum's condition had worsened and I was asked to go to the hospital.
The secretary took over my class and I dashed to the hospital. I met my daughter there - she was going to visit her Nan. The doctors were with Mum and then came to speak to us - she was dying.
She died about three hours after I got there. Geoff flew over from Belfast where he was stationed and stayed until after the funeral. On the Saturday, Geoff printed out an email reply from Claire Waters, who said she was my half-sister! So, at the grand old age of 55, I was no longer an only child! She also said that our father was still alive.
In the space of a few days, I had lost my mother, found my father and discovered a sister I didn't know I had!
Claire had known about me since she was about 12, when she found a photo with me on and asked who I was. Her mother told her that she had a much older sister, but didn't want her to know anything else about me or our father's previous life!
She was born to my father's third wife, Maureen, who died in 1997, and Claire is 21 years younger than me! When I introduce her to people they cannot believe she is my sister, because of the age difference!
Claire and I continued emailing for some weeks, then in June, she drove up from Essex to Hereford to meet me. She brought her wedding video with her so I was able to see my father again, albeit in video.
In July, Phil and I went down to Essex and I met my father again! It was after this weekend that I collapsed with my brain haemorrhage, but the doctors said that the two events were unconnected!
Having just found me again, it would have been awful for him if I had died, which I could easily have done. After my recovery, Phil and I went down to Essex a couple of times to see him and Claire and I also met my aunt again, all after about 45 years!
I wrote to Genes Connected explaining my story and they sent it to a newspaper group. The story appeared in 'The Hereford Times' and then I had three phone calls from women's magazines, asking if they could feature it. Eventually, WOMAN magazine printed it. Unfortunately, my father died, just three days before the magazine came out. He had known about it, but didn't live to see it.
He died in May, 2004, just before Phil and I moved to Spain. He had been looking forward to coming here to visit us, but it wasn't meant to be! I really wish that he had lived long enough to get to know him again and I regret the fact that he never met his grandchildren or great grandchildren!