Brother, Sister Unite After 47 Years Not Knowing

By Mike Perleberg

Kristina Carlton and Todd Weiskittel briefly after meeting for the first time at Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky Airport on Friday, December 20.

provided

Kristina and Todd spent their first Christmas togther as siblings. Here they pose with Kristina's grandchildren.

provided

(Lawrenceburg, Ind.) – Kristina Carlton and Todd Weiskittel grew up in different parts of the country. She’s a cleaner. He’s a painter and aspiring actor. She’s blonde and he has dark hair.

But the once perfect strangers have recently found that they do have one major common thread. They share the same father.

The half-siblings met for the first time on December 20. It was Carlton, of Lawrenceburg, being able to put a face to the brother she knew was out there somewhere since she was 14. For Wieskittel, an only child from far warmer and beach-ier Hawaii, it gave him a family he never knew he had.

“It’s an awesome feeling to gain a family,” he said.

The story of how they came to find each other starts with their common bond, father Michael Weiskittel. The tri-state resident died in a car crash in 1970 at the age of 22. At the time, Kristina and Todd were just three-years-old (they had been born within five months of each other).

Two years later, Todd’s mother took him to California as she pursued a career in design. She knew that Michael had fathered a child with another woman, but she never told Todd.

Sometime during high school Kristina, was contacted for the first time by her grandmother, Michael’s mother. She broke the news to Kristina that she had a half-brother. Kristina, then 14, knew immediately she wanted to find him, but didn’t have a name or relative to go on.

Kristina and Todd’s grandmother passed away a couple years after that. Todd never knew his grandmother and had not been told of her death. His mother, he said, was not telling him any truths at the time.

Years went by. With more time since their father’s death and fewer clues, Kristina began to lose faith that she would locate her brother somewhere out there.

“I gave up a bit there for a little while, looking,” she said. “But, I always talked about it with my children.”

This year, Kristina’s son, Josh, got involved in the search. He logged on to Ancestry.com. Among the first things to pop up on the website was a conversation describing a father who had died in a Cincinnati-area car crash in 1970.

That day, Todd received a message on Facebook from Josh. It included a phone number, which he called right away. Speaking for the first time with his sister 4,000 miles away, feelings of disbelief gave way to exoneration.

“There were good feelings that I finally had a family after being an only child for so long,” Todd recalled.

“I balled. I was just so happy. It was unbelievable that after all this time the emptiness had been filled,” added Kristina.

Todd told his mother what he had learned. That the secret she had kept from him was out.

“She was shocked, but she was happy for me,” he said. “She’s dealing with her own issues.”

Arrangements were soon underway to bring Todd home to meet his sister. The plane tickets were bought.

Todd flew in to Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky Airport on December 20, a Friday. Kristina and her son there waiting for him with a sign, “Todd, we are your family.” As he walked down the concourse to the greeting area, Kristina said she could tell it was him. As they met and hugged, the emotions of nearly a half-century not knowing were absolved.

Now reunited, the two visited their father’s grave at Arlington Cemetery in Cincinnati. They met with their Uncle Larry in Laurel. Todd has enjoyed getting to know his nephews.

“I’ve never been called ‘uncle’ before,” he said.

They celebrated their first Christmas – he got her a shower curtain and towels, she got him a jacket – and first new year together.

Todd flew back to Hawaii on Thursday, January 2. He said he’s considering moving to Cincinnati full-time.