Brother and Sister Reunite After 80 Years
Doris Petre of Brunswick, Maine, is scheduled to reunite with her brother after 80 years of separation. At 84 years old, Petre recalled a life of struggle while growing up during the Great Depression. She was born in Tampa, Fl. in a poor neighborhood. She remembers much loss and heartache in her younger years, memories that are not forgotten after nearly 80 years.
Petre’s family moved to Connecticut soon after she was born. As a child suffering through the Great Depression, she was happy to at least have her family who bonded together for support during the tough times. Sadly, Petre’s mother had become ill and went to live with an aunt on her father’s side. Petre recalls the harrowing trip where she left after saying goodbye to her mother while being told to quiet down in the car as an uncle drove away. Petre, at 4 years old, never saw her mother again. She died in 1931.
Petre never knew why her mother died. A cousin told her it could have been a stroke, but no child in the family seemed to know for sure. “We were kept in the dark,” Petre said. “Nobody told us anything,” and in those days, “you didn’t ask questions.”
Petre had a half-brother at the time, Richard, who was 7 years old when her mother died. Richard Waltrous was the youngest of 4 boys born to her mother’s first husband. Petre went to live with the aunt who cared for her mother, and Richard went to live with a grandmother in Connecticut. That was the last time the two saw each other. “It was like he disappeared,” Petre said.
The next years of her life would be anything but happy for little Petre. When she was 6 years old, her father took her from her aunt’s house when she was home alone. The father had remarried and was living in Boston.
Petre hated living with her father and stepmother. Her stepmother would treat her poorly and since her father was working long hours as a truck driver, he was never present to protect her. Overcome with sadness, Petre decided to run away. She slept on the streets until the next day when police found her and took her back home. The family ended up moving back to Connecticut where Petre ran away again. After this second experience, Petre was permitted by the court system to live with her aunt once again. “After that, my life was better,” she said.
As Petre grew, she always wondered what had happened to the brother who used to cheer her up during the sad times. She was unable to get any information of his whereabouts from family members. She thinks they felt guilty for letting him go. Petre would at times think she was narrowing in on his location but her aunt stopped it immediately.
Even after 80 years, Petre never gave up on finding her half brother. Recently, she was pondering her age and wanted to reunite with him before she died. With the help of her half sister, the two found a Richard Waltrous on the internet and wrote him a letter. Her brother’s son, Richard Waltrous Jr., opened the letter and gave it to his father. Petre wasn’t even sure if Waltrous would respond to her even if he read the letter but she took the chance anyway.
A few days had passed and Petre received a phone call. It was Waltrous. After reading Petre’s letter, he wrote her back a long letter explaining what had happened to him after the two separated. Petre knew her life was horrific at times, but she says after reading her brother’s letter, “He had it rougher”. The letter wrote, “Dear Sis” explaining what happened to him after their mother died, “When her grandmother couldn’t handle the four brothers, the state of Connecticut stepped in after his father died, and sent him at age 9 to a work farm in Waterford, Conn., as free labor. “It wasn’t all that great,” he wrote. “I went into the Navy at 18.”
The two shared pictures via mail and are scheduled to meet in person soon. Petre is apprehensive about the reunion but she says that her brother is “very gentle” and religious despite the difficult life he experienced. He and his wife Betty have five children and will be celebrating their 69th wedding anniversary.
Petre, following in Waltrous’ footsteps, also had a large family. She mothered seven children and now has nineteen grandchildren. She discovered after talking to her brother that the two lived very close and Petre unknowingly would pass his home many times on her trips back and forth to Cape Cod.
Petre is stricken with emotion and unable to speak as she talks about the upcoming reunion with her brother after 80 years. “You can’t wait to talk to and see them,” Petre said. “You get tongue-tied.” Petre is excited and happy to have found him before she died. Petre proclaims, “I look at it like I’m supposed to meet him again.”