Gavin is his name; his mother and father were estranged. One day Gavin’s father picked him up for a trip to the zoo. That was the last time his mother would see her three-year-year old for 27 years, for his father abducted Gavin and took him to live in Hungary. His mother was devastated, and although she appealed to the Hungarian embassy in London and the British embassy in Budapest, and even to Margaret Thatcher, his mother, Avril, never heard another word of her son…for 27 years.
Now at 61 years old, Avril’s health is broken, for although she has other children, she never stopped grieving for her lost son. Her sister reports:
“Avril has had a hard time and endured many, many sleepless nights not knowing if Gavin was alive or dead. She didn’t cope very well and had a terrible time. She has a big heart and loves her children very much. As a result her own health has suffered.”
Mrs Wilson, 59, had spent the best part of three decades helping her sister try to trace her son. The fact that in 1982 Hungary was a Communist state on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain made the task of tracing a three-year-old boy was virtually impossible for a single mother living in Liverpool. Appeals for help through official channels fell on deaf ears.
Source: Times Online
In recent months they started searching the internet, and on Google found a promising link to Facebook. Around the same time, after the death of his father in 2006, Gavin, too, began searching for his mother. Then last October it happened: Mrs. Wilson typed into Facebook Gavin’s name…found him, and emailed him.
“I called my sister when I heard back from Gavin and told her to sit down as I had some news for her. All I heard after that was screaming…”
The complete touching story is here.
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Shirley Buxton 