Navy Chief Aviation Ordnanceman Robert Williamson and Navy Cmdr. Cindy Murray. (ABC 10/10News.com)
They were separated as children more than 30 years ago, but Navy Cmdr. Cindy Murray and Navy Chief Aviation Ordnanceman Robert Williamson were reunited in unlikely fashion Friday in Balboa Park, San Diego.
Channel 10 NEWS reported that with a “quick salute and a long hug [the brother and sister] closed the gap on more than 30 years.”
"It's the greatest thing. I looked for him for the longest time and now here he is and it's just great," Murray, a senior nursing officer at Naval Medical Center San Diego, told 10 NEWS.
"Never in a million years did I think I would be standing here in this situation," said Williamson, who is stationed at Naval Air Station in Lemoore, Calif.
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The brother and sister were separated in the late 1970s, when Williamson was only 6.
"We share different mothers. My dad went a different way from my mother and we just lost touch," Murray told 10 NEWS.
The siblings are originally from Denver.
But as adults, the pair never yielded hope they would have a reunion.
"I tried looking on Facebook, but there are a million Robert Williamson, and I wouldn't have known what he looked like anyway," Murray reportedly said.
Finally, Murray contacted her father, who informed her Williamson was also in the Navy.
10 NEWS writes Murray’s chief petty officer located Williamson in short-order, saying, “I'm pretty sure my boss is your sister. Do you have a sister named Cindy?”
“I just went silent," Williamson reportedly said.
Since then, brother and sister have consistently spoken by phone, as well as emailed.
But as Williamson told the station, "It's the little things you forget to ask when you are talking on the phone because there are so many things you want to ask.”
"He's never left my mind, ever. I've always wanted to find him and now I have," Murray reportedly said.
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