REUNITED AFTER 50 YEARS
Long lost brothers finally meet
SINCE being separated 51 years ago, Terry Gall and Barry Sutherland had both unknowingly been on a journey to find the other.
And last weekend in Toowoomba, thanks to unrelated research conducted by Mr Gall’s son, they were finally able to reconnect – coming face to face for the first time in more than half a century.
The brothers, born in the late 1950s in Sydney, had their world turned upside down when their mother, at just 26, suffered a heart attack and died in December 1965. They were suddenly on their own.
The boys were taken to an orphanage that day, as it appeared no relatives were eligible to take them on, and their father was busy starting a new life.
Mr Gall said as a young child it was a terrifying ordeal.
“The orphanage was like a prison. Every holidays they would send Barry and I to different foster homes to families who might adopt us, but we were always sent back,” he said.
“One day our father came to visit us, and we didn’t know at the time he was saying goodbye. But a little while after that, the date was May 13, 1967, a family came to collect me and another to collect Barry – we were both being adopted.”
Mr Gall and Mr Sutherland kept in touch via the phone for three years.
One day Mr Sutherland rang Mr Gall, and said he was running away and wanted them to do it together.
Mr Gall said he couldn’t as he was still young and understandably scared.
They said their goodbyes, hung up, and it was the last time they spoke, until very recently.
On the weekend Mr Sutherland shared with his brother that the reason he ran away was because they were sending him back to the orphanage.
Mr Gall said he was lucky that his adoptive family were very committed to him, even as he went through a difficult stage in his teenage and early adult years.
He turned his life around at 22, met his first wife Sharyn and turned to Christianity.
From there he had three children and moved states, living in Victoria and Western Australia working for the church, but all the while never giving up hope he’d find his brother, searching with the help of the Salvation Army and church.
Sharyn passed away from breast cancer in 2004, and after a few years Mr Gall met Wendy, his current wife, and they had two children and moved to Withcott and then Toowoomba.
Earlier this year Mr Gall’s eldest son did some research on ancestry.com, to check their family history for any health complications.
From there he was connected with a cousin of his father, and then an aunt who was in contact with Mr Sutherland.
Through a long chain of contacts the brothers were able to phone each. Neither one had given up hope of finding the other.
After two months of chatting on the phone Mr Sutherland and his wife made the trip from Dubbo to Toowoomba, where they could meet face to face.
Mr Gall said it was an unbelievable experience.
“We just couldn’t believe we were together again. We embraced for the longest time,” he said.
“We spent time with our families and on our own, sharing happy and sad memories and trying to understand what happened to us all those years ago.
“I also took him to look around Toowoomba. He’s hoping to come back for a longer period of time next time.
“I’m so pleased to know he is alive and that we are back in contact because I know it’s forever. We won’t ever not keep in touch.”