兄妹失散多年 相親網站重逢

When Sarah Kemp signed up to a website looking for love her dream was to find someone with whom she had a lot in common. So she was delighted when she found George Bentley. The pair swapped emails and photos for three months and hit it off so well that they arranged a date in London.

莎拉·坎普註冊相親網站時，只是想找一個和她有許多共同點的人。所以她很高興認識了喬治·本特利。三個月來，他們通了信、交換了照片，相當合得來，於是約在倫敦見面。

Only then did they discover quite how much in common they really had.

直到這時，他們才發現雙方究竟有多少“共同點”。

For during a chat about their childhood they realised they were long-lost brother and sister, separated by a family breakdown 36 years ago.

聊起各自的童年時，兩人才發現他們竟是失散多年的兄妹。36年前，由於家庭破裂，兄妹倆被迫分開。

Mrs Kemp and Mr Bentley were born in Ashford, Kent, where they spent an ‘idyllic childhood’ with parents Felicity and David Bentley.

莎拉和喬治出生在肯特郡的阿什福德，他們和父親大衛·本特利以及母親費莉茜特住在一起，度過了田園牧歌般的童年。

But the couple divorced in 1975 and Sarah, who was six, joined her mother in Edinburgh, while 11-year-old George went with his father to live in London.

1975年，他們的父母離婚了，6歲的莎拉跟着母親去了愛丁堡，11歲的喬治則跟着父親定居在倫敦。

Neither parent remarried but the two families never spoke again and the two young children lost touch with each other.

他們的父母都沒有再婚，但是這兩個家庭也再沒有聯繫，兩個孩子失去了彼此的音信。

As adults, the siblings tried to make contact, but they had so little information that they were unable to trace each other’s whereabouts.

長大成人後，兄妹倆都曾努力尋找對方，但是音信渺茫，雙方都無法找到彼此的所在。

The search was made more difficult as Mrs Kemp had married in 1989 and, even though she divorced a decade later, she had kept her husband’s surname.
1989年，莎拉結婚了。雖然她後來離了婚，卻保留了丈夫的姓氏。這使得尋找更加困難。

But against the odds, the siblings were reunited after they both joined the website Forget Dinner last November.

儘管有着諸多困難，兄妹倆最終團聚了。這多虧了兩人去年11月註冊的相親網站“忘掉晚飯”。

Their first ‘date’ was to meet for lunch at Mr Bentley’s local pub in East Ham, London.
他們的第一次“約會”定在了倫敦東漢姆地區的一家酒吧，喬治就住在那附近。

Mrs Kemp, who still lives in Edinburgh, said: ‘We had so much in common and we really enjoyed each other’s company.
‘It was as if we’d known each other all our lives.’

而莎拉依然住在愛丁堡。她這樣描述他們的第一次“約會”：“我們有很多共同點，相處得非常愉快。
“我們就像是上輩子就認識了一樣。”

The penny dropped about their true relationship as they talked about their childhoods during lunch.

當他們聊起了各自的童年，兩人真正的關係終於真相大白。

Despite their embarrassment over the unlikely situation, they celebrated the reunion with a bottle of champagne and spent the rest of the evening catching up.

儘管對於這種出乎意料的局面有些尷尬，他們還是開了香檳來慶祝重逢，並在對往事的追憶中度過了當晚餘下的時間。

Mr Bentley said: ‘This was the meeting of a lifetime and we are now planning to see each other as often as possible.’

喬治說：“這是一次改變人生的會面。現在我們打算儘可能多地去探望對方。”

Bookmakers say the odds of the reunion was around 500 million to one – which is more than 30 times less likely than winning the lottery.

博彩專家稱，這種事發生的概率是5億分之一，比買彩票中大獎的概率還要低30倍。