Woman 'stolen' at age four reunited with family 53 years later

Susan Gervaise found out the people who raised her were not her biological parents at age 16.

A woman who was taken from her family in the UK when she was only 4 years old, has finally been reunited with them 53 years later.

Susan Gervaise, who is now 57 years old, used to live with her mother, brothers and sisters in Pontefract, Yorkshire, when she was taken away from them in 1969 by a travelling couple.

She was reunited with her family this year in June after her husband put out a post on Facebook detailing his wife's experience. Her biological relatives in Pontefract saw the post and contacted her.

According to a report in The Mirror, the couple from Scotland invited her on a holiday to a Disney theme park in the US. Gervaise's mother did not find anything odd about the invitation and gave her permission for the trip.

Her mother even gave them a copy of her daughter's birth certificate so they could arrange her travel documents. But the couple, who had two sons, had other plans in mind. Instead of taking 4-year-old Gervaise to Disney, they took her to Canada, Australia, and later New Zealand, raising her as their own.

Gervaise, who now lives in Australia, had no idea what had happened. The family had told her that she had been adopted by them.

She spent her life thinking she was actually an adopted child. It wasn't until she was 16 that she realised that she was not adopted and was instead stolen from her family.

"The enormity of what happened to me didn't hit me. I just carried on with my life," she said. "It was only when somebody who was adopted asked me what my family back in the UK would be feeling and that was a lightbulb moment for me," she added.

Susan, who herself has four grandchildren, said that she was a loved child and had a happy childhood.

"I lived with the travelling community and lived a cherished life where I was spoiled rotten. My mum died from MS when I was 10, but even then, being raised in the hub of a travelling community I was very loved. I have always been happy growing up. I travelled the world," she said of the family she grew up with.