On the third day of the New Year, Maureen Miles opened a letter she had waited 50 years to receive. It was from The Salvation Army Missing Persons & Booth Records.

Dear Ms. Miles: I am happy to inform you that our colleagues in England recently had contact with your half-brother Chris Miles. Chris was pleased to learn you were searching for him and would like to have contact with you.

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She screamed. She blinked. The words blurred as tears welled in her eyes. She finally had the link she needed.

Flashback five decades. Maureen was a college student in England in the 1950s when she received a similar letter from The Salvation Army. But the news was very different. They were sorry to report that her father, Dennis William Miles, did not wish to have contact with his only daughter.

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