Cousins meet again after 47 years apart

Anne McAuley from Bushmills and her sister Mae McGrory from Ballymoney have not seen their Canadian cousin Colleen Brown since her 13th birthday.

However in July Colleen decided to make the journey from Canada to Northern Ireland to pay her long-lost cousins a visit.

Speaking to the Times Mae from Hamilton Park explained: "Our grandfather Bob Louden and Colleen's grandfather Bill Louden were brothers and originally from Ballymoney.

"However when Bill was a teenager he moved to Canada, we're not really sure why, and stayed. He married and had a family there - including our cousin Colleen.

"Our grandfather, Bob, stayed in Ballymoney and also married and had a family - including me and Anne.

"We never really saw Colleen much because of the distance but we do remember her coming over to Northern Ireland to visit the family. We have fond memories of celebrating her 13th birthday together. Then Colleen obviously went back to Alberta in Canada and we continued to write letters for many years.

"However as we got older and our lives became busier with families growing etc we lost contact and addresses. We never forgot Colleen though and frequently thought about her."

Nearly five decades passed before Anne and Mae were able to track down their long-lost cousin.

Anne of Ballyclough Road continued: "Francis Louden was speaking on the phone to a relative in Canada and discovered they had Colleen's phone number and address, so she got it for us.

"Mae would be more of a writer however one day I decided to get the address and write a letter to Colleen telling her all our news and that we missed her greatly.

"We received a letter roughly three weeks afterwards from Colleen saying she was planning a trip to Northern Ireland next year however had decided to come this year having read my letter.

"We then got chatting on the phone and made arrangements that we would call each other alternative Sundays and always stay in touch. We found out she had two children, a boy and girl and had four grandchildren and had been married for nearly 40 years."

On June 23 this year Colleen and her husband Ian started their trip heading to Scotland, Ireland and Northern Ireland - spending four days in Ballymoney.

Anne continued: "When she arrived in my back yard on July 10, I was excited and nervous as I'd not seen Colleen since she was 13-years-old. However when she got out of the car i just run up and hugged her - we both started crying.

"We had four fantastic days together visiting Bushmills Distillery, Portrush, Twelfth in Bushmills etc - although she's promised to come over for longer next time.

"We even had a special family birthday party for Colleen as it was her 60th while she was here - exactly 47-years since we celebrated her 13th in 1963."