It’s the penultimate episode of Long Lost Family tonight and it promises to be an emotional one. The Long Lost Family team feature the stories of two sisters who were kept while their brothers were given up for adoption, a family split by the decision to give up a child fifty years ago, and a sister searching for the brother who was kept a secret from her as a child.
Elizabeth Wells and her daughter Janice are searching for Elizabeth’s son Brian. Fifty-five years ago Elizabeth made an agonising decision to keep Janice while giving away Brian.
‘I’ve missed him from the day I agreed to go through with it and I regret it, I sincerely regret it’ says Elizabeth.
When she was just sixteen years old Elizabeth became pregnant by her first boyfriend. He was married but he promised that he would leave his wife. She gave birth to Janice and her parents helped to take care of the baby. Believing that it would work out she continued to see her boyfriend and seven months later she fell pregnant again. By the time she gave birth to her baby boy Brian, her boyfriend had decided to cut all contact and remained with his wife. Unable to cope she reluctantly gave Brian up for adoption.
Tracey Collins is desperate to find her missing brother. As a child Tracey had always complained to her parents that she didn’t want to be an only child. When she was seventeen her mother told her that she had an older brother who they had given up for adoption before Tracey was born. Despite Tracey’s questions her mother would tell her nothing else about her brother.
Without her mother’s knowledge, Tracey’s father told her that they had given up their son because they had no money or work and were struggling to survive living in one room. Tracey’s mother passed away in 2008 and since then, she and her husband have been trying to find her brother.
Long Lost Family airs tonight at 9pm on ITV. Join us on Twitter to let us know your thoughts on tonight’s episode.