Ontario woman adopted as baby meets 91-year-old sister for first time

Margaret Otter grew up in the town of Paris, Ont., knowing her biological family was out there somewhere.

"I always knew from the beginning that I was adopted," Otter told CTV News Toronto. "My adoptive parents told me that I was adopted, and I always knew that someday I'd try to find them. But I lost interest around the age of 13, when I discovered boys. That just took me in a whole different direction."

Just a few kilometres down the road in Brantford, Bea Belair (nee Rutherford) grew up helping to raise her eight siblings. The children knew that two of their sisters had been given up for adoption at birth. There were eleven children in total, their parents had given up the 9th and 11th born girls.

"We were so poor, like really poor," Belair told CTV News Toronto. "They just couldn't afford to have two more, so that's why they let the two girls go."

Over the years, family members made attempts to track down the missing sisters. Otter says she remembers thinking, "'Could I ever meet them? Would I ever meet them?' And then I thought 'would they want to meet me?'

Last year, she got to answer those questions, when her son made a connection on an online genaology website, an uncle living in California.

"I thought no no no, it's probably a scam" said Otter. "But then too many of the pieces of the puzzle started to fit together."

That discovery, led to the now 91-year-old Belair getting a surprising phone call.

"She said 'I'm your baby sister,'" Belair remembers. "I said, 'you've got to be kidding me.' She said 'No, I'm your baby sister.'"

Otter remembers the life-changing call as well. "It's just a shock. She's 91 and she never thought she had any sisters left because they'd all died. All of a sudden, she discovers she's got a baby sister."

For months, Otter, Belair, their brother in California, and their brother in Brantford have been speaking on the phone. Today, the two sisters met in person for the first time. Belair's son, daughter-in-law, and the widow of one of the sisters' brothers made the drive to Toronto.

"On the way down we kept thinking, I wonder who she looks like," said Belair.

Video captured by family members shows the emotional moment as the door to the condo opens, and the two women come together for a long hug.

Moments after meeting her sister for the first time Belair said, "she makes me think of my mother really, a whole lot."

"She's beautiful" Otter said of her sister. "She's lovely. She's warm and friendly and loveable and I gave her a great big kiss!"

Inside Otter's condo, a room full of people who had never met before quickly turned into a familiar feeling family gathering.

There were laughs, tears, plenty of photos and a realization that paths had likely crossed over the decades.

"It feels like science fiction. It doesn't feel real," Otter said. "One of them went to my dad's barber shop in Paris -- that shocked the hell out of me! I had no idea!"

Of the eleven children born to the Rutherford family, six have now passed away. And the youngest, has never been found. The family believes she would be around 75-years-old and they're hoping to be able to find her.

"The family were looking for me and for her and they never succeed," Otter said. "But technology has allowed so much more to happen now so I'd be so happy to see her. I'd be thrilled to see her and get to know her."