Five siblings in Nova Scotia are making up for lost time after spending decades apart.
Following changes to improve access to provincial adoption records, the Hiltz siblings reunited with their long-lost brother, who was adopted by another family at birth.
Looking at them now, you would never know that Peggy, Donnie, Dave, Philip and John hadn’t grown up together; they joke, laugh and tease each other just like any other group of siblings would.
But it hasn’t always been this way.
“When I was probably nine or 10 years old, I found out from another member of the family that we had a brother that was given up for adoption,” recalled Peggy Cleveland.
“We had not known where he was, or who he was.”
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In 2022, Nova Scotia opened the Adoption Records Act, providing better access to information for adopted people, birth parents and siblings.
That’s when Cleveland knew it was her chance.
“I’m like, ‘Hey! I could do that,’” she said. “Actually, I’m probably …