A family reunion has taken place in Saint John nearly four decades in the making.
Joe Flint has met face-to-face with a brother he hasn’t seen since the pair were toddlers in Ontario. Flint and Andrew Sham are taking a few days to reconnect.
The two are half-brothers who share the same mother.
Sham and his wife travelled to New Brunswick from San Francisco earlier this week.
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Flint and Sham haven’t seen each other in the flesh for 38 years
The pair has been separated since the two were practically babies in Brockville, Ont., when the relationship between their mother and Andrew’s father ended.
Flint’s mother put him up for adoption which gave him his new name and an eventual move to New Brunswick. Over the years, Sham’s travels led him to Buffalo, New York, Texas, California and even Hong Kong.
Flint says he knew he had a brother but had little else to go on.
“The only thing I had was a name and the only other thing I knew was his father’s name and he was born in April,” Flint explained.
Eight years ago and after some research, Flint reached out on Facebook to the person who he believed was his brother asking for a phone call if this person was his brother or if he had information on who his brother was.
“Two minutes later, the phone rang and it was Andrew. He said, ‘I’m your brother,'” Sham said.
Since then, the two have remained in touch but this has been the first personal contact in almost 40 years.
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“I feel more complete now, whole, because I kind of had a lot of the pieces together,” said Sham.
“I see that, he now is, like he said, ‘complete,'” added Sham’s wife Sophea. “All the pieces are coming together and he feels more like he belongs.”
The family dynamic doesn’t end here.
Since Flint and Sham first reconnected some years ago, Flint has learned he and Sham share three other half-siblings.
For now, though, this one-on-one family reunion was just right.