London, Nov 23 (ANI): After almost five decades of separation, a brother and sister recently bumped into each other by chance.
According to the Daily Mail, the pair lost contact when Rodger Mason, 68, joined the British Army and went off to fight in Malaya in 1962.
Mason and younger sister Joan, however, were reunited by chance 48 years later when both came to the Royal Maritime Club in Portsmouth, Hants, where some 500 veterans were awarded the Pingat Jasa Malaysia Medal.
The medals were in recognition of their services in helping to defeat the Communist insurgency and the Indonesian confrontation.
Joan was attending the event to witness her husband Trevor Wright being honoured for his service aboard the HMS Lincoln.
It was Joan who recognised her brother first and stunned Mason when she tapped him on the shoulder and asked: "Excuse me, are you Rodger Mason?"
"I saw Rodger from across the room and I knew straight away that it was him. I have a photo of my dad and he looks just like him. What are the odds that we'd both be here?" said Joan.
"It's incredible to see him after all this time," she added.
Expressing shock at being recognised by his sister after all these years, Mason said: "I couldn't believe she'd recognise me after all these years. It took me 30 seconds or so then I knew it was her."
"We used to call Joan 'Smoky' because on the day she was born our house caught fire. So when she introduced herself, I said: 'Hello Smoky'," he added.
Amazingly, the pair had lived just three miles apart from each other for years.
The siblings, who have different mothers but share the same father, were separated in the late 40s after their parent's split, when Rodger was six and Joan still an infant.
A teenage Mason joined the First Battalion Green Jackets and often stayed with Joan's family between his overseas deployments until 1962.
The long-lost siblings now plan to keep in touch and meet regularly. (ANI)
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