Dixon Handshaw got an incredible Christmas gift this year—an entire family!
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The 75-year-old Elmira, New York, man always believed he was an only child after his adoption at birth. It was only when he ordered a copy of his pre-adoption certificate in August that he got the surprise of a lifetime.
There, he learned the name of his biological father: Robert “Bud” Romig, ABC-affiliate WHAM reported. Romig was a physics graduate student at Cornell University, when he met Handshaw’s mother, the secretary in the physics department.Â
A Google search then told him that his father went on to have five children and adopt three others with a woman in Rochester, New York.
Curious but hesitant, Handshaw reached out to one of the adoptive children, Gary Romig, according to CNN.
“I chose Gary as the one that I would call because I knew he was adopted and I was adopted, and so I thought he would be empathetic to my situation,” Handshaw explained.
He added that he “didn’t want to intrude” on his long-lost family members, but Romig was happy to recieve to his call.
“I was eating my lunch in my car at a job site, and I got a phone call and I didn’t recognize the number,” Romig recalled to WHAM. “I hardly ever answer the phone if I don’t recognize the number. But for some reason, I answered it.”
“And he says, ‘Hi, my name is Dixon. Are you Gary Romig?'” he said. “I said, ‘I am.’ He goes, ‘I’m your brother,’ and I’m like, ‘What?'”
75 Years After He Was Adopted, Dixon Handshaw Found 55 New Family Members
Handshaw sent a photo to Romig, who shared it with his siblings. They immediately recognized him as a relative.
He then flew to Rochester to meet them in person for the first time—meeting 55 family members in total just a few days before Christmas.
“I’m not going to waste any time having this new family,” Handshaw said. “I couldn’t be happier.”
“It’s so special, because he’s very emotional and excited and can’t believe that we are opening him, opening our arms to him and welcoming him to [our] family,” his half-sister, Wendy Gell, told WHAM.Â
While the family didn’t immediately spend the Christmas holiday all together, they’ve already started a family text chain and have made plans to go camping together.
It’s another family blessing for Handshaw, who said that, while he had “great adoptive parents,” he always wished for siblings.
“I thought one or two would be great,” he said. “I got six!”