As an 18-year-old Jewish refugee during the height of World War II, Gerda Cole gave her newborn daughter up for adoption – and 80 years later, the couple finally reunited just in time for Mother’s Day.
Cole’s daughter Sonia Grist, who lives in England, flew to Toronto on Saturday to reunite with her birth mother – at least on the latter’s 98th birthday – after learning she was still alive and well. lives in Canada.
“I’m shaking,” Grist said as he waited to meet his mother for the first time.
“A little over a year ago, I didn’t know my mother was still alive. I knew very little. I still don’t know much and there are thousands of questions I have to ask her, but I don’t want to bombard her. “
Grist, now 80, arrived in Canada with his son Stephen Grist on Saturday to meet Cole for the first time. Cole, who lives at the Revera Kennedy Lodge in Scarborough, said the plan was in the works several months after Cole’s grandson contacted the home.
The two clung to each other, unable to let go while Cole screamed with joy.
“At eighty,” Cole said in shock as he looked at his daughter, who jokingly replied, “Don’t stress my age.”
“When I heard, I just couldn’t believe it,” Cole said. “It must be a miracle. It means so much to be able to live out this moment.
Grist flew from England with her son to reunite with her mother after learning that she was still alive and living in Canada. (Mark Bohsler / CBC)
At the age of 15, Cole was sent by her family to England to escape the persecution of Jews in her native Vienna in 1939.
A few years later, in 1942, Cole gave his newborn daughter for adoption at the age of 18 because of her economic situation.
“I had a very limited personal education, and that, combined with wartime, left me with nothing but to adopt Sonia on the advice of the asylum commission,” she said. “The condition was that I no longer have a relationship with the child.
Cole arrived in Canada after the war and went on to earn three university degrees, including a bachelor’s degree with honors from the University of Toronto in Jewish Studies.
Stephen Grist went down on his family line last year to provide proof of Austrian descent so that the family could obtain Austrian citizenship when he contacted Cole’s adopted son.
When he was told that Cole was still alive at the age of 97 at the time, he did not know how to break the news to his mother and waited two weeks before breaking it.
“I just thought, oh my God, that just amazed me,” Stephen Grist said. “The idea that her mother was still alive and she would have the opportunity to meet her was so exciting that she just threw us in a circle.
“When I told my mother that [Cole] she was still alive, she just said, “I want to get on a plane to Canada right now and give her a big hug,” he said.
He then began following Cole and contacted her through the long-term care home.
Cole met his grandson Stephen Grist for the first time. (Mark Bohsler / CBC)
Wendy Gilmore, senior vice president of long-term care at Revera, said plans to reunite the family have been under way for several months.
“It’s an amazing journey that all people have gone through, [Cole] and her children and her grandchildren, “Gilmore said.
Gilmore said the holiday was exactly what residents needed after more than two years of battling the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on long-term care.
“It was difficult, it was a difficult time for the homes and our residents and to have a party – which is something we haven’t done in a long, long time – brings back the excitement,” she said.
Cole celebrated his 98th birthday on Saturday, the day before Mother’s Day. (Mark Bohsler / CBC)
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