MISSING . . .
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, runun by Gill Whitley.
WHERE is cousin Helen? Jeff Waller, 78, who now lives in Alicante, Spain, writes: ‘For many years now, I’ve been trying to find Helen Kitchiner, from Astwick in Bedfordshire. She was born circa 1946 and a sister, Jane, followed in 1950. Her parents were Barbara and Douglas. ‘I was born and grew up in Kettering, Northamptonshire, and we often used to visit the Kitchiners in Astwick, where Helen’s maternal grandmother, ‘Aunt Nell’, also lived — she was the sister of my grandmother, Alice Smart. ‘Helen’s father Doug ran a garden centre at Greenfields,
Astwick, which was next door to the farm owned by his family. My photo is of Helen on the shoulders of my brother Pat, and
I’m stooping down in front. Unfortunately, some time after it was taken, further visits to Astwick were stopped due to an illness in the family, and eventually we lost touch.
‘I did hear that Helen got married to Philip Goddard, and I believe her sister moved to Norfolk in later life. I moved to Spain in 2001, after taking early retirement from my job as a sales rep with the pharmaceuticals firm Pfizer.’