A man shared his emotional reunion with the gay brother he never knew on Reddit. His story will make you angry and sad, but it’s ultimately one filled with hope.
Our friends at GayStarNews found the story, which starts with a Nintendo 64 (remember those?) and ends with a reunion that’s right out of a Nicholas Sparks flick:
He was in his room playing while a guy, almost his dad’s age, had come over to the house while his 16-year-old brother was babysitting him. There was a big age difference between the two brothers at the time, but John would always do as his older brother, who we’ll call Ryan, said, as Ryan would pull him around in a wagon and babysit him often.
While he was asleep, John woke up to his brother whispering outside the front door. ‘Don’t worry, he’s asleep’, he said. The older guy then said something he couldn’t hear, but John could make out the word ‘visit’.
‘The next morning–the day he disappeared–my parents were at work,’ John said. ‘My brother was acting very strange. I remember he kept checking the clock. In the afternoon, I remember him picking me up and asking me if I wanted to go in the wagon. I was too hooked on Nintendo 64 and said no. He almost begged me and I said no again.
‘Then he told me he had to run to our neighbor’s house for something, I don’t even remember what he said. I said okay. He reminded me to not open the door for anyone, only mom and dad. I shouted at him “OKAY!” because Super Mario was getting on my fucking nerves and he wasn’t helping.
‘He gave me a hug and told me he loved me and left. He never came back.’
Ryan was declared missing, making the news, as a ‘creepy unsolved mystery’.
Eventually, John learned that his parents had taken Ryan’s name off the missing persons list. It turns out they’d disowned him after he came out as gay and told them he was living with a man. John was livid:
‘I went ballistic. My parents weren’t fazed by it. They sincerely hate my brother for who he is–for being gay. They kept him a secret from me all my fu**ing life. My brother missed the birth of his nephew, he missed my wedding, graduations, EVERYTHING. Just because of my parents. They lied to me.’
John got his brother’s contact information and nervously dialed up the number:
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‘The first thing I heard on the other end of the line was a guy laughing in the background. There was wind on the phone. The person on the other end was outside and it was windy. ‘Who is this?’
‘It was his voice. I knew that voice. It was my fucking brother. My brother! Who had been gone for my entire life! I covered my mouth with my shaking hands and just sat there. He kept asking me who it was. The guy in the background was trying to talk over him. He hung up on me. I called him back right away. He answered again.
‘Me being a creepy ass, the first thing I said after decades of not seeing him and thinking he was dead, I blurted: ‘I got your number.’
‘He asked me who I was and what I wanted. I said, ‘It’s me.’ There was a really long pause. I thought the call had dropped. Then I heard him tell someone to turn the radio down and roll the window up. The sound of wind stopped… and then he asked me my name. I told him and he said that I was lying. I told him I got his number from the missing children’s network and detectives. I heard him gasp. He asked me what color shoelaces he wore to a picnic when we were kids, and I remember my mom getting mad at his orange laces with blue shoes. It was the last time we were together as a family.
‘I could tell he was crying. The first thing he asked me was: ‘Where are you?’ and I told him I lived a few hours away from home. Without hesitating, he told me, ‘I’m coming.’
‘He went straight to the airport without any luggage, bought a plane ticket, and flew straight to me.’
Incredibly, the story has a happy ending for him and his estranged brother:
‘He’s married. His husband is a doctor—a pediatric oncologist. They live in the Pacific Northwest. They have two children—girls, 12 and 8. He works as a legal consultant and has his own firm. He has an amazing life. He told me that he thought I hated him and wanted nothing to do with him. We sat at the bar for hours. Literal hours. I think we sat for about six hours before I begged him to come home and meet my wife.’
There’s a lot more where that came from, and we highly encourage you to read the entire story.
It’s sad that homophobia nearly destroyed this family, but we’re happy the two brothers were able to reconnect.
YoungRepublicanNYC
Beautiful story of brotherly love.
I wish gay men had that kind of brotherly love for each other, however.
I also hope that one day the straight brother learns to forgive his parents for their ignorance. Like most of these cases, it seems the mother has forgiven the gay son and it’s the father that is still struggling to come to terms with the fact that his son likes a big, fat, veiny cock up his ass.
Imperialist
What a touching story.
onthemark
@YoungRepublicanNYC: (1) Why must ALL gay men everywhere have “brotherly love” for ALL gay men everywhere? That’s ridiculous.
(2) Why do you assume he’s into anal sex? Maybe he’s just into oral. 🙂
Hussain-TheCanadian
This is so touching, it brought tears to my eyes.
@YoungRepublicanNYC: ok simmer down – passes over Ice tea.
Stache
@YoungRepublicanNYC: “‘I went ballistic. My parents weren’t fazed by it. They sincerely hate my brother for who he is–for being gay.”
Don’t you think the brother would mention that then. Seems they’re quite content on being assholes.
MMDD
Wow. What an incredible story. So glad for both of them that after all these years, they can finally be a family again. They have the rest of their lives to make up for so much lost time.
Only thing that leaves me scratching my head is why the gay brother would take off and not even call his husband first to tell him what was going on. Maybe he was just so caught up in the emotion of it that he wasn’t thinking, but still…
Chris
Nice; here’s hoping their future as a family is as wonderful as their reunion.
Billy Budd
Beautiful, moving and strongly emotional story. I am crying right now. I have a twin brother who is totally straight and we love each other so much.
billjones
How awful of the older brother. Disappearing from his younger brother’s life and never reaching out.
captainburrito
@MMDD: In the more detailed version it is stated that his brother never hangs up the phone after they start talking and they talk for most of the time he is in transit till he meets him (presumably with breaks from when he has to turn his phone off).
@billjones:
In the more detailed version it is also explained that he did sent letters etc to his younger brother but the parents intercepted it and went a step further by telling the gay brother that his younger brother didn’t even remember him (which actually was true). The only time it got through was when his younger brother was on the news for sports at university. The gay brother sent him a hamper of his childhood fave candies which helped jog the younger brothers memories a little. The older bro also left his number with the authorities to keep a line of communication open and that eventually allows the younger bro to contact him as he bypasses his parents to find this info.
It was actually the younger bro that forgot about his older brother until the candy and some video games jogged his memory. I can sympathize as something similar happened to a sibling of mine although i remembered the minute i heard their voice years down the line but if i was younger i might not. The younger brother also procastinated a while and needed prodding by his wife to even call his older brother but i could understand that too. It makes me recall how emotional that phone call from my lost sibling was on that fatefall morning just as i was about to run out the door for school.
GayEGO
@onthemark: Or maybe he is a rimma donna! :>)
GayEGO
@billjones: He probably did not reach out to his younger brother because his parents were so bigoted he figured his brother would side with them. Being gay is not always easy to reveal, especially to family.
MMDD
@captainburrito: I read that; but even so, it looks like he would’ve at least taken one minute to call or text his husband and say, “Hey, I’m hopping on a plane to go see my brother. I’ll call you when I get there to explain,” or something at least letting him know he was leaving town and where he was going. After all, he has a spouse and children who depend on him. If the situation had gone sour and something had happened to him, the man’s husband and children would’ve had no clue.
girldownunder
Congratulations to those men to find each other– as well as complete acceptance from those who matter!
W00t!
DMRX
@MMDD: How do you know that the person he was talking to in the car wasn’t his husband?