KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It took a lifelong yearning for a sibling, a deathbed confession, DNA tests and nearly 80 years before a brother and sister found each other.
Ralph Earl Britz celebrated his 90th birthday Sunday with his 83-year-old sister, Roberta Best, there for the celebration.
"All these years I've been brought up as an only child," Britz said. "But wouldn't it be wonderful because I always wanted a brother or sister."
The possibility he might have a sibling he never knew first surfaced when Britz tried to get a passport and his birth certificate, which had been lost.
The birth certificate revealed the man he thought was his birth father was actually his stepfather.
That made him question his lineage.
"We started having questions, I said, 'Was I adopted?' he remembered.
Britz's daughter, Lana, got DNA from her father and sent it to 23 and Me, which does genetic testing for health, ancestry and more.
Lana said the quest to find answers "was absolutely like looking for a needle in a haystack."
The needle they found came in the form of a deathbed confession from the mother of then 78-year-old Roberta Best.
"The day she passed, she told me that my dad had a child before he married her," Best said. "I knew it was a boy, started looking, but without a name I didn't know where to find him."
Roberta's family also used 23 and Me and got their answer.
"My grandson, Phillip, called and said, 'MeMe, I think you have a brother. I think we found your brother," Best said.
It took Best just one look to know she had a brother.
"As he was walking up the sidewalk I don't need DNA," she said. "That's my brother, he looks too much like my dad."
Britz said it was meant to happen eventually.
The two are able to offer comfort and support to one another as they are finally able to be a family.
"I've lost my husband, he's lost his wife, Mauddie," Best said. "We can keep each other company. He comes over and takes me out to lunch. We talk constantly about things in our past. We are really getting to know one another."
Britz has more plans that include his sister.
"Sis and I are going to travel together," he said. "She might not know it, but we are!
Best and Britz know how blessed they are to have found each other.
"It's never too late to have have family," Best said. "I guess we're just very fortunate that we found each other."
Britz went decades not knowing about his sister.
Having one now is the greatest birthday present of all.
