After a 26-year absence, two sisters are reunited.

A family shares a heartwarming reunion at LAX


Two Los Angeles siblings were reunited with their long-lost sister Thursday after being separated from her for 26 years, and the whole encounter was made possible thanks to MySpace.

Genea Scott says she can still clearly remember the day she had to say goodbye to her little sister, Love Bradford.

It was 1984 and the two were in Los Angeles County's child protective system. Love, 6 years old at the time, had just been adopted by a family in Oregon.

Before the two parted ways, Genea gave her little sister a framed photo of herself.

"I've always told her, 'My name is Genea Scott. Don't ever forget that,'" Genea said.

Two and a half decades passed.

"At a certain point, I kind of gave up," said their older brother Dwayne Scott, who managed to stay in touch with Genea because they both lived in Los Angeles.

"I thought maybe we wouldn't ever have a chance to see her again," said Dwayne.

On Thursday, the family was finally reunited.

"I've always wondered. Every day of my entire life. My whole, entire life," said Love after the reunion.

Nowadays, Love Bradford lives in Portland. She's married to a gospel singer and has four children.

Also, she now goes by Nicole Love Bradford. That name change, made by her adoptive parents back in the '80s, is one of the reasons Thursday's reunion had to wait so long.

The siblings were searching for Love. They should have been looking for Nicole.

Eventually, Nicole was able to find them. Her husband found Genea on MySpace.

They sent her messages, but never got a response. Turns out, Genea rarely checks her MySpace account, and was wary of strangers trying to contact her on the Internet.

"So, what I did was contact her 'Top Friends,'" said Nicole's husband, Nehemiah.

It worked. About a month ago, one of Genea's "Top Friends," her niece, let her know that her sister was trying to contact her.

The two sisters spoke on the phone, traded childhood photos and were able to confirm their relationship.

At Thursday's reunion, the younger sister brought something she'd held dear to her heart all those years -- that framed photo -- her attempt to keep connected to a past she barely remembered.

"There was still that void, that hole in my life," said Nicole.

That void has now been filled.

By Olsen Ebright and Gordon Tokumatsu

Source: nbclosangeles.com