Mother and daughter reunite in Toronto after 80 years of separation
Gerda Cole, a 98-year-old Ontario woman, says she received the best Mother’s Day present she could ever imagine after seeing her daughter again for the first time in eighty years.
As a young Jewish girl, Cole escaped persecution in her native Vienna, Austria in 1939 at the start of Second World War. Her parents sent her alone on a children’s transport to England.
At age 18, she gave birth to her daughter, Sonya Grist, in 1942, but due to her economic situation, she was advised by the refugee committee in England to place her baby for adoption, and was told not to have any further contact with the child.
Cole and her daughter had been separated for 80 years since.
On Saturday, the two held tightly onto each other during the reunion. Cole squealed in excitement and repeated the words “80 years” in bewilderment. Jokingly, her daughter retorted, “Don’t emphasize my age.”
“Thank you all for coming and sharing this wonderful experience with me. I am so overjoyed to be able to say, ‘my daughter,’” Cole said on Saturday. “It means so much to be able to live to see these moments.”
Stephen Grist helped his mother track down Cole in Canada and contacted her at a Toronto long-term care home. He said the whole time he was just simply hoping to find the name and background of his birth grandmother.
Gerda Cole was reunited with her daughter Sonya Grist and grandson Stephen Grist during Cole's 98th birthday party.
“I was fully expecting to find eventually some record of death,” he said on Saturday. “In the end, I found Gerda’s stepson, and they told me that Gerda is alive and well and living in a home in Canada. That was such a shock in the system. It changed everything.”
“When I told my mother, the first thing she said was, ‘I want to go on a plane to Canada and hug my mother,’ but we couldn’t do that because of the pandemic, but here we are now.”
Sonya Grist said she knew Cole was her mother in their first email correspondence they ever had, when Cole wrote to her, “You have to understand this computer doesn’t like me.”
“It was exactly something I would say,” she said with a laugh.
The mother and daughter spent the rest of the day talking and dancing with one another during the reunion party. It was a moment they both would always treasure.
“Don’t wait until tomorrow before it is too late, if you want to live, live now, not tomorrow or the day after,” Cole said on Saturday. “It’s all the advice I have to give.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
B.C. tenants evicted for landlord's use after refusing large rent increase to take over neighbouring suite
Ashley Dickey and her mother rented part of the same Coquitlam duplex in three different decades under three different landlords.
Mountain guide dies after falling into a crevasse in Banff National Park
A man who fell into a crevasse while leading a backcountry ski group deep in the Canadian Rockies has died.
Expert warns of food consumption habits amid rising prices
A new survey by Dalhousie University's Agri-Food Analytics Lab asked Canadians about their food consumption habits amid rising prices.
MPP Sarah Jama asked to leave Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
MPP Sarah Jama was asked to leave the Legislative Assembly of Ontario by House Speaker Ted Arnott on Thursday for wearing a keffiyeh, a garment which has been banned at Queen’s Park.
Charlie Woods, son of Tiger, shoots 81 in U.S. Open qualifier
Charlie Woods failed to advance in a U.S. Open local qualifying event Thursday, shooting a 9-over 81 at Legacy Golf & Tennis Club.
Ex-tabloid publisher testifies he scooped up possibly damaging tales to shield his old friend Trump
As Donald Trump was running for president in 2016, his old friend at the National Enquirer was scooping up potentially damaging stories about the candidate and paying out tens of thousands of dollars to keep them from the public eye.
Here's why provinces aren't following Saskatchewan's lead on the carbon tax home heating fight
After Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the federal government would still send Canada Carbon Rebate cheques to Saskatchewan residents, despite Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe's decision to stop collecting the carbon tax on natural gas or home heating, questions were raised about whether other provinces would follow suit. CTV News reached out across the country and here's what we found out.
Montreal actress calls Weinstein ruling 'discouraging' but not surprising
A Montreal actress, who has previously detailed incidents she had with disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, says a New York Court of Appeals decision overturning his 2020 rape conviction is 'discouraging' but not surprising.
Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels and Drake Maye make it four NFL drafts with quarterbacks going 1-3
Caleb Williams is heading to the Windy City, aiming to become the franchise quarterback Chicago has sought for decades.