Dixon Handshaw meets his family after being adopted 75 years ago. Photo:
ABC News/YouTube
“I couldn’t be happier,” Dixon Handshaw said
It’s a Christmas miracle!
A 75-year-old man who was adopted as an infant in Buffalo, N.Y., recently discovered that he has one half-sister and four half-brothers.
Dixon Handshaw believed he was an only child before he ordered his pre-adoption certificate in August and learned the name of his biological father, Robert “Bud” Romig, according to ABC-affiliate WHAM as well as CNN.
He told WHAM that what happened next was a “Christmas miracle.”
Handshaw, who always wanted siblings, looked up his father’s name on Google and found his obituary, which revealed their uncanny likeness and his multiple siblings, per CNN.
He said he doesn’t know why he was placed for adoption, although he knows his biological father was a physics graduate student at Cornell University and his mother was the secretary in the physics department.
Handshaw’s biological mother did not have any more children after his birth, but his biological father went on to have five children and adopt three others with a woman in Rochester, N.Y. After learning this, he decided to reach out to one of his father’s adopted sons, 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.
Handshaw told WHAM that he was hesitant to reach out to his newfound family because he “didn’t want to intrude on people,” but Romig was receptive 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. I hardly ever answer the phone if I don’t recognize the number. But for some reason, I answered it,” Romig told WHAM. “And he says, ‘Hi, my name is Dixon. Are you Gary Romig?’ I said, ‘I am.’ He goes, ‘I’m your brother,’ and I’m like, ‘What?'”
Handshaw then sent Romig a photo of himself, and Romig shared it with his siblings and they saw his uncanny resemblance to their father.
Handshaw met his siblings in person for the first time after he flew to their hometown on Friday, Dec. 20. The following day, he met 55 people from that side of the family.
“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.
“I’m not going to waste any time having this new family,” Handshaw said. “I couldn’t be happier.”
According to CNN’s reporting, while Handshaw won’t spend Christmas Day with his newfound family members, they’ve made plans to go “camping together this summer” and have even started a text group.
Handshaw, who has no children of his own, tells the outlet that he loved his adopted parents, but always wanted to be part of a larger family.
“I had great adoptive parents. They were wonderful. I love them and I miss them, but I always wanted siblings, and now I have them,” Handshaw said. “I thought one or two would be great. I got six!”
