5 Siblings Think Their Mother Is Dead, 58 Years Later They Get an Email Disputing Their Belief

Five siblings found out their long-lost mom was alive 58 years after being separated from her. They had believed she was dead. Get inside their emotional reunion.

Dave Inglis and his siblings grew up in Lincolnshire, UK, without their mom, Margaret Shimkus, because they believed she was dead.

Inglis, his sisters, Lizzie Oliver, Diana Chapman, and their two younger siblings were young when their mom left them. Their father was violent towards her, and she was forced to leave when she could no longer bear it.

YEARS WITHOUT THEIR MOTHER

Oliver disclosed that her mom could not cope with her father's violence towards her in ITV chat. After she left, she tried multiple times to return to her kids.

However, Oliver's dad, Brian, was not having it. Instead, he told her she could not have the kids and warned her to leave them. Also, he threatened to kill her if she came back again.

After Shimkus left for good, Brian married another woman. When they asked him about their mom, he would tell them she had died, and his new wife was their mother. Oliver revealed:

"You couldn't keep asking, because if you asked anymore then you'd get a beating."

The five siblings spent time in and out of foster care. However, they always ended up going back to their dad. However, they struggled to survive living with him. He hit them, and they knew he did that to their mom too, which left her with no choice but to leave.

MOM HAS TO BE ALIVE

Brian died at 74 in 2008. However, Inglis could not help thinking his mom, Shimkus, was alive. He had spent 20 years trying to track her down.

In his attempts to know the whereabouts of his long-lost mom, Inglis requested his local newspaper's help. Also, he reached out to the British Red Cross and the Salvation Army. He told ITV:

"There was something inside of me that said this is not true - she's got to be out there."

In addition to the local newspapers, the Red Cross, and Salvation Army, Inglis and his wife visited several places and tried to get his mom's National Insurance Number. However, they did not find any trace of her.

SHIMKUS IS ALIVE INDEED

Inglis was bewildered by the lack of any information about his mom. However, he did not know that she had remarried an American man she met in Britain while serving there.

After his service, she moved to America and lived with him in Arizona. They had three girls and a son, meaning Inglis and his siblings had more half-siblings they had never met.

When Shimkus told her kids with her American husband about their half-siblings, they were also keen to find them. Hence, both families were looking for each other.

They trawled through ancestry websites and social media in a bid to make contact with themselves. Finally, Inglis received an email in September 2019 informing him that his mom was alive, 86 years old, and residing in Arizona.

After that information, Inglis and his siblings were desperate to reunite with their mom. However, she was too frail to fly over to the UK, and with time not being on their side, they began a fundraiser to fly over to the US to see her.

AN EMOTIONAL REUNION

In December 2019, Inglis and his four siblings finally came face to face with their mom after nearly 60 years of being apart from her.

When they met, they embraced emotionally and spent the rest of the day catching up on each other. Also, they met their half-siblings and shared laughs. In a chat with Fox 10 Phoenix after reuniting with his mom, Inglis said:

"It is a happy ending. We move forward now. It is a happy ending, the way I see it. Our lives are complete."

It's good news that Inglis and his siblings reunited with their mom after six decades and met their half-siblings. So hopefully, the lovely family will have more beautiful memories to celebrate.