Woman, 98, reunites with daughter put up for adoption 80 years ago

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Gerda Cole celebrated a truly unbelievable and unforgettable Mother’s Day one day early on Saturday afternoon.

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Cole, who was also celebrating her 98th birthday, was finally reunited with her biological daughter, Sonya Grist, after 80 years apart.

The elderly resident of Revera’s Kennedy Lodge Long Term Care home in Scarborough not only met Grist but her grandson, Stephen, for the first time.

“My daughter, my grandson Stephen, thanks for this opportunity, it means so much to be able to live to see this moment,” Cole said Saturday, decked out in a tiara and blue sash that read, ‘Happy Birthday,’ while reading from a letter she had written while her daughter stood behind her wheelchair.

Cole’s incredible story began when she was sent away to England in 1939 at the age of 15 by her family to escape persecution of Jewish people in her native Vienna, Austria.

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She became pregnant as an 18-year old refugee and gave her newborn daughter up for adoption in 1942.

Grist, living in England, tracked her mother back to Canada, contacted her at Kennedy Lodge and arranged the reunion and birthday celebration.

Stephen said his mom actually thought her birth mother had died but found out differently due to complications from BREXIT and the pandemic that combined to lead the family in a certain direction.

“The Austrian government allowed anybody who could trace their ancestry back to people who had left Austria in the early 1930’s — they could apply for Austrian citizenship,” he explained

“Eventually, I discover that Gerda, my mother’s birth mother, has a stepson and I contact the stepson on Facebook and I say, ‘I’m missing one last piece of information. I just need Gerda’s death certificate to be able to finish the application for Austrian citizenship so can you help me with that?’ And he said, ‘You’re not going to find her death certificate for her because she’s still alive and living in a nursing home in Canada.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, my God! My mother’s mother is still alive and is 97 turning 98 (Saturday)!”

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After emigrating to Canada following the Second World War, Cole earned three university degrees, including an Honors BA from the University of Toronto in Jewish Studies.

She has traveled extensively around the world, including several archeological digs in Israel and Cyprus.

Grist, whose adoptive parents had been quite secretive about her adoption, said Cole wanted to hear steel drum music at the reunion and celebration before she herself admitted to everyone gathered: ‘I’ll let you in on a secret. For a while I was a member of a steel band.’ I wasn’t terribly good.’”

— With files from Veronica Henri