SHREVEPORT, La. -- Betty Roberson of Shreveport recently celebrated a one-of-a-kind birthday, because for the first time in her life, the celebration included her three sisters.
"It’s just stuff you wouldn’t imagine in your wildest dreams, and they’re all sitting at the table with me," said Betty. "It’s crazy."
Their story begins in 1956, when Betty and her two sisters were living in north Louisiana. Their parents, Robert and Evelyn Williams, gave up the girls to the state and they were eventually adopted by different families.
It would be the last contact the girls would have. The shakeup was tough for Betty to understand.
"When they left, it was like, OK what do I do now? You took my life away," Betty said.
In 2005, Betty decided to try something crazy to draw interest to her search for her two sisters, so she put her story for sale on eBay, calling it "Lost Memories." For $5 you got the picture of the three girls and the story of their separation.
"I just thought it could get it out there, get the picture out there, get the story out there and maybe we could make a connection," said Betty.
The Monroe News star newspaper picked up the story and ran it. Bonnie Thomason, living in Ruston, saw the article and wondered if it could be her long lost sister.
“I thought there are too many similarities for this to truly be a coincidence,” said Bonnie.
An e-mail and a phone call later, the two sisters who hadn’t seen each other in 45 years found each other.
"I get a telephone call from Betty, and I just said, 'I think I’m your sister,' and she went nuts and so did I,” said Bonnie.
Meanwhile in Baton Rouge, a woman named Sandra Hamilton who was also adopted was looking for information about her family. Years ago, she had cancer and wanted to find family members for a family history, but found nothing.
“But everybody told me the same thing. Well, it’s virtually impossible for you to find your siblings or your mother and father,” said Sandra.
But Sandra’s son, Brandon Steed, wouldn’t give up, and nightly searched the Internet for clues. However, the only information Brandon had was that her parent’s names were Robert and Evelyn Williams.
But one night searching the web, Betty’s story from eBay appeared, and Brandon immediately called his mom to tell her he thought he had found her sisters.
This news surprised Betty and Bonnie because Sandra was not the other sister they grew up with. Sandra was born right about the time the three girls went off to the foster home, and they didn’t even know about Sandra, which then meant there were actually four William’s sisters, not three.
Sandra drove to north Louisiana to reconnect with her two newly found sisters.
“And I said, wow, I’ve got a family. I’ve said to this day it doesn’t seem real, but it is and it’s great,” said Sandra.
After finding one sister on the Internet, Brandon kept going, still looking for the missing sister.
“It goes from becoming a want, to becoming a need to find these people. This is what I have to do,” said Brandon.
And just three months ago, his search led him to Madisonville and the home of Ann Bouchon. When Brandon told Ann he had found her sisters, she broke down in tears.
“It was a good occasion for both of us and an awesome experience,” said Brandon.
The girls recently enjoyed what they called a “sister-cation” in Biloxi, marking the third time ever all four sisters have been together.
“This is the first time that I have had to celebrate and sing to my sister after 51 years,” said Ann.
Their journey is not over yet, as they are trying to find one more sister, sister number five. Apparently when Sandra was adopted as a 1-year-old, Evelyn Williams was pregnant with number five. The sisters have since learned it was a girl born in 1957, but that’s all they know. Except that they will never give up the search for her.
“When we find sister five it will be a day of rejoicing, no doubt about that,” said Betty.
It will be a search they will do together, vowing not to shed tears over the lost memories, but to savor the new ones.
“Every time we get together we have to make every moment count, because we lost so many years,” said Sandra.
