41-yr-old adopted woman discovered she lived her whole life just a 5-minute walk away from her biological grandpa

The mom of 4 was desperately searching for her biological family before she learned the surprising truth.

UPDATED JAN 7, 2025

A senior man in formal wear and eyeglasses hugging with young lady while sitting at table (Representative Cover Image Source: Pexels | Andrea Piacquadio)

When people get adopted at a young age, most of them try to reconnect with their biological family when they are older. The task of finding their biological parents and other family members can prove to be difficult if the adopted individual has been through a closed adoption process. According to the Liverpool Echo, a middle-aged woman had spent much of her life trying to track down her biological family members. 41-year-old Sammie Wilson's desperate search came to a positive end when she finally found what she was looking for.

Close-up shot of a woman's hands signing adoption papers (Representative Image Source: Pexels | olia danilevich)

Wilson was adopted at the age of 5 and found out about the adoption when she was 16. At 18 years old she was able to recover her birth records and started searching for her biological family. Wilson, originally from St. Helens, reunited with her mother, brother and father but was left stunned when she figured out where her grandpa lived. Wilson's grandpa stayed less than five minutes away from her Blackpool home.

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“It just so happened that he lived around the corner from my house, legit a five-minute walk. I could have walked past him in the street. I eventually plucked up the courage and knocked on the door and when he answered he knew exactly who was instantly, it had been 20 years," Wilson told the news outlet. “I don’t know how he ended up here from St. Helens and he has had a stroke so can’t really talk, I want to learn more. I’ve now found out my grandad has a brother, he is called Roy and I believe he is still in St. Helens." Wilson was fortunate to reunite with her biological family for a short while. She lost her biological parents since then and has been building her own family with 4 children, Alex, Jason, Trinity and a 5-month-old Freddie.

“Mum was 62 when she died from pneumonia, it was lovely to spend those years with her, our relationship was lovely in the end. My dad was amazing when I finally found him. By the time I found him, we only had five months together because he died from cancer that same year, at the age of 47. It was lovely to reconnect, I just wish we had got longer," Wilson continued. She was delighted about the fact that her biological dad was able to meet her eldest child and the birth of his first grandchild.

A woman laughing and chatting with an old man on a sofa (Representative Image Source: Pexels | SHVETS production)

He was also there to watch Wilson getting married. “It would be nice to find the rest of my biological family because I haven’t got anyone left, except for my grandad, Cyril Fletcher and brother. All I know is that they are from St. Helens," Wilson added. Her next goal was to find Roy, who was the last of her biological family members she couldn't get in contact with. Wilson had also lost her aunt in those years. "There is another child in a picture I have with Roy and I want to know who the child is. I have questions. It would be so nice to find my real family because I have children I want them to meet. Family is everything to me," Wilson concluded.