兄妹失散多年 相亲网站重逢

When Sarah Kemp signed up to a website looking for love her dream was to find someone with whom she had a lot in common. So she was delighted when she found George Bentley. The pair swapped emails and photos for three months and hit it off so well that they arranged a date in London.

莎拉·坎普注册相亲网站时，只是想找一个和她有许多共同点的人。所以她很高兴认识了乔治·本特利。三个月来，他们通了信、交换了照片，相当合得来，于是约在伦敦见面。

Only then did they discover quite how much in common they really had.

直到这时，他们才发现双方究竟有多少“共同点”。

For during a chat about their childhood they realised they were long-lost brother and sister, separated by a family breakdown 36 years ago.

聊起各自的童年时，两人才发现他们竟是失散多年的兄妹。36年前，由于家庭破裂，兄妹俩被迫分开。

Mrs Kemp and Mr Bentley were born in Ashford, Kent, where they spent an ‘idyllic childhood’ with parents Felicity and David Bentley.

莎拉和乔治出生在肯特郡的阿什福德，他们和父亲大卫·本特利以及母亲费莉茜特住在一起，度过了田园牧歌般的童年。

But the couple divorced in 1975 and Sarah, who was six, joined her mother in Edinburgh, while 11-year-old George went with his father to live in London.

1975年，他们的父母离婚了，6岁的莎拉跟着母亲去了爱丁堡，11岁的乔治则跟着父亲定居在伦敦。

Neither parent remarried but the two families never spoke again and the two young children lost touch with each other.

他们的父母都没有再婚，但是这两个家庭也再没有联系，两个孩子失去了彼此的音信。

As adults, the siblings tried to make contact, but they had so little information that they were unable to trace each other’s whereabouts.

长大成人后，兄妹俩都曾努力寻找对方，但是音信渺茫，双方都无法找到彼此的所在。

The search was made more difficult as Mrs Kemp had married in 1989 and, even though she divorced a decade later, she had kept her husband’s surname.
1989年，莎拉结婚了。虽然她后来离了婚，却保留了丈夫的姓氏。这使得寻找更加困难。

But against the odds, the siblings were reunited after they both joined the website Forget Dinner last November.

尽管有着诸多困难，兄妹俩最终团聚了。这多亏了两人去年11月注册的相亲网站“忘掉晚饭”。

Their first ‘date’ was to meet for lunch at Mr Bentley’s local pub in East Ham, London.
他们的第一次“约会”定在了伦敦东汉姆地区的一家酒吧，乔治就住在那附近。

Mrs Kemp, who still lives in Edinburgh, said: ‘We had so much in common and we really enjoyed each other’s company.
‘It was as if we’d known each other all our lives.’

而莎拉依然住在爱丁堡。她这样描述他们的第一次“约会”：“我们有很多共同点，相处得非常愉快。
“我们就像是上辈子就认识了一样。”

The penny dropped about their true relationship as they talked about their childhoods during lunch.

当他们聊起了各自的童年，两人真正的关系终于真相大白。

Despite their embarrassment over the unlikely situation, they celebrated the reunion with a bottle of champagne and spent the rest of the evening catching up.

尽管对于这种出乎意料的局面有些尴尬，他们还是开了香槟来庆祝重逢，并在对往事的追忆中度过了当晚余下的时间。

Mr Bentley said: ‘This was the meeting of a lifetime and we are now planning to see each other as often as possible.’

乔治说：“这是一次改变人生的会面。现在我们打算尽可能多地去探望对方。”

Bookmakers say the odds of the reunion was around 500 million to one – which is more than 30 times less likely than winning the lottery.

博彩专家称，这种事发生的概率是5亿分之一，比买彩票中大奖的概率还要低30倍。