This reunion tale is wonderful. On her 98th birthday, Gerda Cole received the ideal and most surprising gift. For the first time in 80 years, she got to meet her daughter, Sonya Grist.

Everyone was surprised by the family reunion, which was made possible by Stephen Grist’s tenacity.

Stephen is Sonya and Gerda’s grandson. He says that because of Brexit and the pandemic, he started looking into his mother’s birth parents in order to submit an application for Austrian citizenship.

He claims that although his mother had looked for them over the years and was unsuccessful in doing so, her adoptive parents were covert about it, leading her to believe that her mother had passed away.

Gerda was discovered to be alive and residing in a Canadian nursing home!

During World War II, a young Jewish girl named Gerda was forced to evacuate oppression in Austria. She was an 18-year-old immigrant in England who lacked the resources to care for a kid, so she placed her baby daughter for adoption.

According to her statement to CBC News, ‘I had very little personal knowledge, and this, combined with the conflict, left me no choice except to have Sonya adopted.’ The requirement was to cut all ties to the child going forward.

Sonya booked a journey from the UK to Canada so that she could finally see her mother when she found out that she was still alive and that she was approaching her 98th birthday.

‘I didn’t know my mum was still alive until a little over a year ago. I was completely naive. I still don’t know a lot, and I have a ton of questions for her, but I don’t want to worried  her with them,’ Sonya remarked.

The two have discovered, however, that they already have a lot in common, including a love of travel and steel band music.

According to the Toronto Sun, Gerda is overjoyed to finally meet her daughter. Gerda thanked the opportunity and stated, ‘My daughter and my grandson Stephen, thank you so much. It means so lot to be able to live to witness this moment.’