Wednesday Weirdness
Welcome to Wednesday Weirdness, a recurring theme where we post something truly weird and wacky in adoption or child welfare.
This one tells this story of a sibling reunion.
“One adopted man was shocked to discover he had a long lost sister who happens to work at the very Walmart he’d been frequenting for years.
John Maximer, 57, had long been searching for information about his biological family and about a year ago Maximer discovered he had a brother and three sisters.
After being connected with some of his other siblings after his mother’s death, Maximer was shown a picture of his sister Buddine Bullinger and was flabbergasted that it was an employee at his local Walmart in Dickinson, North Dakota who’d been working there for 25 years and with whom he’d had a friendly relationship.
ABC News reports that the children had been given up for adoption 50 years ago by their mother through Catholic services and when their mother died a year ago, the puzzle pieces of their family life began to reassemble.
One of the five siblings, Deidre Handtmann, reconnected with her mother later in life and took care of her until she died about a year ago.
Buddine Bullinger, 56, only knew her mothers name but was put in touch with Handtmann by the funeral home following their mother’s death.
Catholic services put Handtmann in touch with Maximer over the summer and Handtmann shared information with Maximer and showed him a picture of his sister Buddine Billinger.
‘My mouth just fell open,’ Maixner said.
Maximer recognized the photograph and set up a coffee date with the sister he’d seen for years but never truly got to know.
‘We exchanged phone numbers and went to Perkins and had coffee and got to know each other,’ Maixmer said of his younger sister to ABC News.
The siblings decided it was time for all five of them to get together at last.
John Maximer, Buddine Billinger, Deidre Handtmann, John Blankendall of Tennesee and Sandy Watkins of California all met for the very first time in October of 2013.
The family met and compared similar features.
‘I walked in and I was just kind of speechless’ Maixner said. ‘The conversation got going after a while, but we all just looked at each other and we all looked alike.’
Maximer told ABC that he has no children of his own and lost his adoptive parents a year ago but that what he gained was for siblings and ‘at least’ 10 nieces and nephews.
Maximer, the eldest sibling said, ‘I gained a huge family.’
‘I found myself looking at my brother and comparing our ears and our noses and our eyes,’ he also quipped.
The five siblings who lived all across the United States for up to 50 years without meeting now talk almost every day,
‘We just talk about daily things,’ Maiximer said. ‘What we’re doing…work…what we’re eating for lunch or supper.'”
Man discovers local Walmart employee he’d known almost 25 YEARS is his SISTER after being shown her photograph from one of his other four estranged siblings[Daily Mail 2/15/14 by Alexandra Klausner]
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