MEMBERS of a family divided during wartime are to hold a very special reunion in a York village.

Sheila Hall, from Strensall, was separated from her baby brother when she was three.

But next month she will meet the family she never knew when his widow flies over from America.

Sheila's father died in 1940, and Sheila, her brother Tommy, two, and new baby brother David, were fostered by friends while their mother worked to support them.

Sheila said: "We never really knew David, I remember him but he was just a tiny baby.

"Eventually Tommy and I went home to my mother and I kept asking when the baby was coming back, but he never did. My mother found it all too much to talk about, she would not tell us about it all, so eventually it all faded away, and we did not hear any more for the next 63 years."

Sheila's mother died in January, and in her belongings she found a yellowed Evening Press cutting.

"It was an obituary for the woman who had acted as mother to David for all those years, and gave me a way of getting in touch."

Sheila traced her brother's foster family, who explained he had moved to America.

"Sadly he died a couple of years ago, so we cannot be reunited.

"But half-an-hour after talking to them I had a call from David's wife in South Carolina.

"He was married and had two children, so I have still found my family."

David's widow is now flying over at the end of June for a big family celebration in Strensall Village Hall.

Updated: 11:06 Friday, May 23, 2003