Facebook helps sister find long-lost brother in Canada

A Canadian living in the western city of Calgary has just found her long-lost brother by posting a message online on New Year's Eve.

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) News reported on Monday that Matthew Handford, who tracked down his sister, Shylow Wilson, thanks to a post on Facebook in which 25-year-old Wilson said she was looking for her biological brother named Matthew who was given up for adoption by their mother after he was born at Calgary's Grace Hospital in February 1987.

"I was a little skeptical, but now that I've met him, I know it's for sure him, and I'm really happy about that," said Wilson. It was a "good Family Day miracle" right there, she said.

Her younger brother Handford also turned to Facebook in last December to look for his three siblings. All he had was their names on a piece of paper his adoptive mother gave him, based on some research she did back in 1996.

"I've got a little paper, something simple with all the same names... To actually put all these back stories together and put a face behind all the stories is amazing," he was quoted by CBC as saying.

Handford contacted a lady named Wanda Levasseur on Facebook, since she had the same last name as his mother, Marilyn Levasseur who died at 24 after a battle with alcoholism.

He didn't hear back until last Thursday, when Wanda showed him Wilson's post. Handford reached out to Wilson on Facebook and then by phone, before flying from Toronto in east Canada to Calgary to meet his sister on Saturday.

"I was adopted at four days old, so it's the only family I know. To find out I've got an extended family now, it's a great feeling," Handford said.

Handford said he would definitely stay in touch with his sister. "It took this long to get together, so [we've] got a lot of time to make up," he said. Endi