Family Finds Long-Lost Sister

By Nicole Wiseman, NewsOn6.com

After a desperate plea for help, a Green Country family is finally whole again. Less than a week ago, NewsOn6.com brought you the story of a family's journey to find their long-lost loved one.

The family says it all started when the Oklahoma Department of Human Services took a mother's 10 children away from her 40 years ago. They were separated from their home in Chickasha and placed in foster care. Nine of those children had found their way home. One child was still out there, until now.

40 years of searching for answers and praying for a miracle are over. Despite the obstacles they've faced, the Martin children are together once again.

"You're lost and you don't know if you'll ever see them," said Nelda Louise Martin, now Nelda Louise Letterman. "And it's just hard, it's hard to fit in."

Nelda Louise can now turn to her mother for support, something she hasn't done since DHS separated her family in Chickasha when she was just 6-years-old.

"I've waited and I've searched and I've always wondered," said Nelda Louise. "I've looked at people that look like me and wondered if they might be kin, but I never knew."

The missing pieces started coming together when a News On 6 viewer saw the family's story and told his daughter living in South Carolina. The daughter then dug up information that helped lead to Nelda Louise, now living in Lawton.

"If he hadn't told her about the story, this could have never happened," said Nelda Martin, Nelda Louise's mother.

"I started hollering, 'there's my sissy, there's my sissy,'" said Nelda Louise.

"And I sprinted and then we didn't let go of each other," said Kristy Goswick, Nelda Louise's sister.

And now, they'll never have to.

"She said, 'I tried to hold on to you and not let you go back then.' And I told her you don't have to let go now," said Goswick.

"You never have to let go again kids. You've got each other, remember that," said Martin.

Before she could hold her sisters, Nelda Louise held on to a picture of her with Kristy. The photo was the only comfort Nelda Louise had of a life she once knew.

"As recently as last month she had pulled it out and looked at it, but she would cry and wonder," said Goswick. "She doesn't have to wonder anymore. I don't have to wonder anymore. We're complete."

Not only is the family complete, they're growing. Nelda Louise has two kids and seven grandkids.

"I had 22 grandkids, so two more makes 24," said Martin. "And 14 great-grandkids, so seven makes 21.

"Having 10 kids and to be taken away and adopted out and all these different things, what are the odds that everybody would make it back home," Goswick said.

It's a happier ending to the search than the family could have ever imagined. But, it's just the beginning of the life together they've always dreamed of.

Related Story: 07/12/2008 Family Needs Help Finding Loved One