Marian Griffin and Donald Hefke have finally found each other after being separated as babies in 1946 when they were placed in foster care. Griffin was adopted by a Lutheran minister’s family while Hefke remained in foster care until joining the U.S. Air Force, but neither sibling knew the other existed for decades. Hefke began searching for his biological family in 1963 and even reached out to Griffin’s adopted parents, but they never told her about his attempts to make contact.
The breakthrough came when Hefke’s daughter Denise Baker spent over two decades conducting her own search, eventually discovering Griffin’s son had uploaded DNA results to Ancestry.com. When Baker contacted Griffin’s son in July 2024, Griffin initially thought it was a scam, but after several conversations she was able to speak to her older brother for the very first time. Now 80 and 81 years old respectively, the siblings talk on the phone monthly and Griffin is planning to fly to Florida to meet Hefke in person. As Griffin puts it, “We were looking for each other for 80 years, and we found each other, don’t give up on each other.”