After a great reaction to the story of two brothers and now two sisters who were all reunited this morning on our show, allDAY reached out to Don Carrigan, the reporter at NBC affiliate WCSH6 in Portland, Maine, who first broke the story. Here is his guest post:
What are the odds? Just think about that -- what are the odds of two guys going to work at the same place, then discovering they're brothers? That's one reason so many people have loved this story, and why I love this story. But another reason is that these are Maine kids, taken from their birth parents by the state so many years ago, suddenly, beautifully discovering they have family. How can you not love that?
I got a call at home from one of their co-workers the day the brothers announced it to the rest of the crew at Dow Furniture. But I didn't get the message in time to be there for the party. So the next day we arranged to come by. To tell the truth, I didn't know what a great story this was until we got there, met Gary and Randy, and heard it from them. It was then very clear that this was a terrific story to share. Placing them in the truck for our interview seemed natural. And then when Gary made his now-famous comment "nothing good ever happens in Waldoboro", it was too perfect for words. You have to know Waldoboro, Maine is a town of about 5,000, and a place that's had more than its share of problems. The worst was this spring, when one local woman was killed, another badly injured in an attack by two other supposed friends of theirs. It really shocked the town. Beyond that, its been a hard year for people who harvest clams, which is one of the towns major businesses. A hard year for everybody, including the furniture store where Randy and Gary work.
So maybe that's the best part of all. This time, something good happened in Waldoboro. We need good things every once in a while to remind us that life has ups as well as downs. The economy's still bad, summer's over, winter's ahead. But these two brothers -- and now their sisters -- have just brought a smile to every face. I'm hoping they'll let us be there for Thanksgiving.