Shine OnEstranged siblings lived strangely similar lives
When U.S. Navy Cmdr. Cindy Murray and Chief Aviation Ordnanceman Robert Williamson met eyes on Friday, they didn't know whether to salute or embrace in a long-awaited hug. So instead, they went for both.
“It’s my brother!” 51-year-old Murray screamed through tears shortly after the two embraced for the first time in almost 40 years.
The two U.S. Navy siblings were separated in the late 1970s, after their parents divorced. Murray, who was 14-years-old at the time of the divorce, went to live with their mother, while Williamson, who was six-years-old, stayed with their father.
For decades, the siblings have looked high-and-low for each other, including doing searches on Facebook, Murray tells NBC. Neither realized that they'd both been serving in the Navy -- in the same state -- for almost 20 years.
About two months ago, Murray called her father, whom she hadn’t spoken to in decades. After telling him that she worked as a nurse in the Navy, her father revealed that her now brother, now 44, also worked in the Navy, just 320 miles away from her.
Murray got to work quickly, enlisting the help of a leading chief petty officer to search for her brother within the Navy database. Within 2o minutes, Murray had her brother on the phone. Two months later, on Friday, the pair finally met in person at the Naval Medical Center San Diego.
“It's indescribable,” Williamson tells U-T San Diego. “Never in a million years did I think I'd be standing here.”
The siblings' childhood years together are fondly remembered, and seemingly characterized by their significant age difference.
“He was like my live doll,” Murray says. “I would cook in my Easy-Bake-Oven for him. I remember holding him in my arms when he was just a tiny baby.
Williamson now has three adult sons and a grandson. Murray says she regrets not being an aunt all these years.
“He's been right under my nose all along. And I've looked for him forever,” Murray says. “We've had all this time we could have been together.”
The siblings have much in common, and not just when it comes to their career paths.
"We both love Goldfish crackers and we both love the same types of TV shows," says Murray.
The story of Murray and Williamson isn't the first touching reunion tale to make headlines lately.
This summer, a California woman reunited with her daughter after 71 years apart, during which time she believed her daughter had passed away.
And last month, a California woman reunited with her estranged brother after 50 years when she discovered he was a patient at the nursing home she worked at.
