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US man, sister reunite thanks to Facebook, boy


AP FILE PHOTO

DAVENPORT, Iowa – A man has been reunited with his sister 65 years after the siblings were separated in foster care thanks to a 7-year-old friend who searched Facebook.

Clifford Boyson, of Davenport, Iowa, met his sister, Betty Billadeau, in person on Saturday.

Billadeau drove up from her home in Florissant, Missouri, with her daughter and granddaughter for the reunion at a hotel in Davenport.

Boyson, 66, and Billadeau, 70, both tried to find each other for years without success. They were placed in different foster homes in Chicago when they were children.

Then 7-year-old Eddie Hanzelin, who is the son of Boyson’s landlord, got involved.

Eddie managed to find Billadeau by searching his mom’s Facebook account with Billadeau’s maiden name. He recognized the family resemblance when he saw her picture.

“Oh, my God,” Boyson said when he saw and hugged Billadeau.

“You do have a sister,” Billadeau said.

“You’re about the same height Mom was,” Boyson said.

Billadeau’s daughter, Sarah Billadeau, 42, and granddaughter, Megan Billadeau, 27, both wiped away tears and smiled during the reunion.

“He didn’t have any women in his life,” Sarah said. “We’re going to get that straightened out real fast.”

Boyson said he’s looking forward to visiting Billadeau near St. Louis and meeting more family.

“I’m hoping I can go and spend a week or two,” he said. “I want to meet the whole congregation. I never knew I had a big family.”

Eddie, who enjoys messing around with his family’s iPad, said he’s glad he was able to assist in making the reunion happen and that he learned about helping others at school.

“Clifford did not have any family, and family’s important,” the boy said.

Near the end of their tearful reunion Boyson and Billadeau presented Eddie with a $125 check in appreciation of his detective work.

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Tags: Facebook , Family , Iowa

  • raffyb0i

    aawwww

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1405060221 Fearless Gara

    Wow that’s good news.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ETIVE4H6I7ZVBAL72HE3VLGCA4 nicosan

    nice morning read…

  • MCHUK

    Lovely story. Lesson to be learned here….if you are going to have a FB account (or any social networking account for that matter), then do bother to use a mugshot photo than your favourite pet cat, dog, horse etc for the avatar. In this last week I have teamed up with 2 school buddies from 3 decades ago & 3 business/industry contacts wanting to hire me for work.
    Young Eddie put 2 +2 together when he saw Bettie’s photo.

  • http://eltorobumingo.blogspot.com/ el toro bumingo

    I hope my childhood friends would also create a Facebook account. I would love to see them as well and to know their whereabouts. This is an inspiring story :)



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