WPBN: For the majority of his childhood, Dixon Handshaw believed he was an only kid. The 75-year-old, however, discovered he has a few siblings decades after being adopted, and he met them during the holidays.
Before the family’s yearly Christmas celebration, Handshaw, who resides in North Carolina, flew to Rochester, New York, over the weekend to meet some of his half-siblings.
“All my life, I dreamed about having siblings somewhere,” Handshaw stated to WHAM. “This is my Christmas miracle.”
Handshaw told on Tuesday that he met more than 50 cousins on Saturday that he was unaware of until earlier this year. Handshaw was the only child of his adoptive parents and has no children of his own, so the reunion, which included relatives and their kids, was a pleasant surprise.
“I’ve never met anybody who shares my DNA,” Handshaw stated. However, Handshaw claimed that they clicked right away when he met his folks. “It was wonderful,” he continued. “I have never felt such an outpouring of unconditional love as I had from my new family.”
Handshaw, who was born in Buffalo, New York, in 1949, said that his parents were open about his adoption and that he had a happy upbringing after being adopted at the age of three months.
Handshaw stated, “I always wanted to find them, but New York State sealed the pre-adoption birth certificates, and it was impossible to find out.”
After a 2019 law was passed, adopted New Yorkers’ original birth certificates were opened in 2020.
According to him, Handshaw’s original birth certificate arrived in August of this year. At that point, he discovered that Robert “Bud” Romig was his biological father.
“The first thing I did when I got my father’s name was Google him, and up pops his obituary,” Handshaw stated. “Not only was I shocked to see that I looked exactly like him, but I immediately knew that I had all these brothers and a sister.”
Although Handshaw is unaware of the reason for his adoption, he is aware that his father was a graduate student in the physics department at Cornell University. He said that his mother was the department secretary.
Handshaw said he always wondered if his father had children of his own, but his biological mother did not have any more.
After Handshaw was born, Romig and a woman who had three kids of her own made Rochester their home. According to Handshaw, Romig adopted the three boys. Five children—four boys and one girl—were born to the marriage. According to him, Handshaw got in touch with Gary Romig, one of his father’s adoptive kids.
“I chose Gary as the one that I would call because I knew he was adopted and I was adopted, and so I thought he would be empathetic to my situation,” Handshaw stated.
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Gary received his first call from Handshaw when he was at work having lunch.
“I got a phone call and I didn’t recognize the number. I hardly ever answer the phone if I don’t recognize the number. But for some reason, I answered it,” Romig stated. “And he says, ‘Hi, my name is Dixon. Are you Gary Romig?’ I said, ‘I am.’ He goes, ‘I’m your brother,’ and I’m like, ‘What?'”
Romig instantly recognized his stepfather’s face when Handshaw sent him a picture of himself. “I sent him a photo, and Gary shared it with all of his siblings,” Handshaw remarked. “They declared, ‘It’s Dad!'” “That’s your new brother,” Handshaw replied, after Gary kept his siblings guessing for two and a half hours.
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Handshaw plans to spend more time with his new family soon, even though he isn’t spending Christmas Day with them right now.
“We’re going to go camping together this summer,” he said, adding that he and his siblings already have a designated text group. “We’re on it every day,” Handshaw stated.
Handshaw and his siblings are currently making up for lost time, but he pointed out that it’s better late than never for them to meet.
