Ali Kirker on a tale of sadness and joy as a ‘forgotten’ son finally finds his family

Tommy Chalmers, Pat McBain and Robert Weston, Right, outside the house in Turrif where their family lived

IN a world dominated by Brexit, the General Election and What Donald Did Next, it was a different story that caught my eye this week.

Robert Weston was abandoned in a ladies’ toilet in Birmingham in 1956.

More than 60 years later, he has met his Scottish half-brothers and sister for the first time.

Robert discovered he has at least four surviving brothers and a sister.

When he first met half-brother Tommy and half-sister Pat he says he “had to touch them to make it real”.

Robert has been searching for his mum for almost 50 years. So far he still doesn’t know who gave birth to him.

That decades-long search must surely have raised and dashed Robert’s hopes many times.

Yet he hasn’t given up.

It just goes to show the importance of family ties and belonging.

It’s a rare family that doesn’t fall out or moan about each other now and again. For most of us, though, when the chips are down it’s family we’ll turn to.

We know that they’ll be there for us no matter how annoying we might have been in the past.

Not me, of course. I’m pretty much perfect!

But those everyday little traditions, quirks, quotes and in-jokes that we take for granted can actually become a huge part of who we are.

There are certain members of my family who I feel know me better than I do.

And if I ever need a talking to, you can always trust one of them to step up. Sometimes there’s been a queue.

Robert spent the first seven years of his life in a children’s home and admits to spending some of his childhood being confused and angry – and who can blame him?

Thankfully, his “wonderful” adoptive parents stepped in to give him a family life.

But he never stopped searching.

How overwhelming it must be for those in Robert’s position who find long-lost family. To see unknown, yet somehow familiar, faces, reflected back at them.

Stories like Robert’s and those on Davina McCall’s Long Lost Family show are endlessly fascinating. They also demonstrate how we surely shouldn’t sweat the small stuff. Most of the things we nag and bicker about in families really aren’t important.

However, if my son is reading this, he still has to tidy his room.