MISSING . . . . . . AND FOUND

Happy 20th anniversary: Joan and Pat (circled left to right) meet up with their old NCR colleagues in 1981

THE DAILY MAIL offers the opportunity to re-establish contact with long-lost relatives and friends. Each week, MONICA PORTER features the story of someone trying to find a missing loved one and a tale of people reunited. Produced in conjunction with the voluntary tracing service Searching For A Memory, run by Gill Whitley.

IS another reunion on the cards? ‘I am searching for an old colleague called Pat Nixon,’ writes Joan Hanover of Herne Bay in Kent. ‘We worked for NCR, the American computing and technology company, in London in the 1960s. It was a super office to work in, with a big group of us ladies; we were called punch tape operators. We arranged to meet up in 1981 to mark the 20th anniversary of our starting to work together. Quite a few of us did, including Pat, at a London tea room. ‘We met again the following year and Pat was there, but after that, she never came again.

LAST month, Dan Richmond, 81, a retired business consultant living in East Sussex, was hoping to reconnect with an old pal he met in the 1970s, antiques dealer Leo Adamson. The following decade, they had a bit of a falling out when they argued over the value of some items Dan had bought from him. But before that, they were great mates.

‘As our wives also got on well, we’d go out as a foursome. A typical night out would be an early dinner at a restaurant, followed by a West End show and then a quick drink before Leo and Sue went home to Surrey and Chrissie and I returned to north London. ‘We believe her name changed to Newman when she got married. Our crowd continued for a long time with annual gettogethers, but nowadays, as we are all aged 74 to 83, we keep in touch online and by phone.

It was a shame we that stopped seeing each other.’ And Leo (now living on the south coast) agrees. A friend ‘The last we knew about Pat was that she was living in Nottingham and working at Boots. She might have moved or remarried. It would be so lovely to make contact — this is really our last chance to find her.’

of his brought this storys to his attention and he made contact, describing it as ‘a delightful surprise’.