‘Reunited,’ Feb. 28

As the older brother, Ray Lawrence is protective of his little sister, Evelyn.

One of the earliest memories the siblings share involves Evelyn’s beloved red tricycle. She was about 3 and he about 5 at the time. When Evelyn was naughty, her tricycle was placed in the hay barn at the family’s home in Ohio and she was forbidden to ride it. But that wouldn’t stop the strong-willed toddler, who would always find a way to get to the tricycle. One day, knowing his sister was in for more trouble if caught sneaking into the hay barn, Ray did the deed himself.

He was caught, and their mother “was smacking his butt all the way into the house,” recalls Evelyn Farley. “It was so funny.”

For many siblings, collections of memories like these help shape fond recollections of childhood. For Ray and Evelyn, it’s the only memory they share. It’s a moment in time both reflected on fondly in February four days after seeing each other again for the first time after decades apart.

At about the time of the tricycle incident in 1951, Ray and Evelyn’s father died, leaving their mother alone to raise nine children. Within the next year, their mother also suffered the loss of a sister and brother.

The state of Ohio stepped in and took custody of the Lawrence children. Because no single orphanage could take that many children at one time, they were split up, Ray said. Aside for an older brother he recalls roughhousing with, Evelyn, now 60, is the only sibling Ray, 63, has any memory of.

Shortly after the family was split up, Ray says he saw his sister once when he was about 7, and again many years later at her wedding in 1979. At the age of 5 and already in the foster care system, Evelyn was involved in a life-changing automobile accident. She still resides at an assisted living facility and operates mentally at the level of an adolescent.

“At the time (of the accident) she was 5 and I was 7,” Ray says, adding there are conflicting versions about how the little girl was ejected from a moving vehicle and hit by a truck.

“Momma told me to roll down the window,” Evelyn says. “I opened the door and the wind blew me out.”

Growing up in multiple foster homes, Ray says he never felt part of a family until he joined the Navy. Add four tours in Vietnam and Ray admits that, while he constantly thought about his sister and other siblings, he didn’t do much to find them.

After retiring from the Navy in 1991, Ray moved to Wasilla to be close to the family of his former wife. By this time, he had a family of his own, and it wasn’t until a few years ago when his son, Douglas, took the initiative that Ray began to renew hope of seeing Evelyn or any of his other lost siblings again.

“I got a letter!” Evelyn recalls with excitement. “I (always) believed. I said, ‘Read it to me.’ It said, ‘Evelyn, we’re looking for you. If you’re the lost sister of Ray, write back to us.’ … I knew this was going to be my lost brother.”