When 60-year-old Singaporean Richard Yong found out he was adopted, there were three questions that entered his mind.
“Who am I?”
“Why was I given away? Why wasn’t I wanted?”
These were the questions that Richard kept asking himself since his adoptive father told Richard he was not their biological son before he passed away.
He was 27 at this time.
He did not look for his biological family yet because he chose to take care of his mother first while she was still alive.
His mother told him more information about this biological family. Their family name was Wong and they lived in the Dakota area with their many children.
Ten more years would pass
It wasn’t until his mother passed away a little more than 10 years ago that he began his search for his biological family.
By this time, he was already married with children of his own and he wanted his children to know his family. He wanted to know about his family, too.
Richard knew his mother’s name. It was on his birth certificate, which his father tried to disguise as a clerical error. He searched the name online but came up with nothing.
Then, in November 2021, he was searching for a friend’s obituary online when he thought maybe that’s what he should do to search for his mother.
A hard discovery
And when he looked for his mother’s obituary online, he found her.
He found a woman with the same name who died in 2008. She had four sons and four daughters and the wake was in the Dakota area.
“When I saw the obituary, it was the most unsettling 10 to 15 minutes of my life,” Richard recalled. “I shouted to my wife: I found my mother.”
His search went deeper.
Over the next three days, Richard tried to find out as much as he can about his mother and his family.
He found a list of names with the family name Wong and discovered that he knew one of the Wong children. It was Tom Wong, who was his boss in the Armed Forces in the 1980s.
“At that time, he was so near to me but I didn’t know he is my blood brother. It’s like the world is so small,” Tom Wong shared.
A mutual friend
When he searched their names on Facebook, they had a mutual friend, Joseph, whom he has known for around 36 years.
They met when they were members of the same squadron in the Armed Forces. Richard got in touch with Joseph and asked about Tom and the Wongs.
Joseph replied that Tom was his uncle.
Richard couldn’t believe it. Joseph wasn’t just a friend, he was family.
Joseph asked if he knew the Wongs.
Richard said that he didn’t but told Joseph that he was from the Wong family before he was given up for adoption.
At the start of his search, Richard was apprehensive to meet his siblings. He was super excited to finally see them but he wasn’t sure if they felt the same.
It took Joseph 1.5 days before he replied to Richard and it was good news. He said all his uncles and aunties, the Wong siblings, want to meet Richard.
So they set up a date and Richard went over to Wong Ming Chee (or MC), his oldest brother’s, house to meet all of them for lunch.
Before they met in person, they exchanged messages over WhatsApp and Richard shared his photos with his siblings.
“There were messages, pictures flying around. I took one look and said, ‘Oh my goodness, this guy looks like one of us!'” MC shared. “You don’t need a DNA certificate, a birth certificate, the pictures tell the story.”
And when they met each other in person, they couldn’t believe what was happening.
A beautiful reunion
His siblings were so happy that they found their youngest brother.
“I feel like I’ve been born again, I’m able to breathe again,” Richard said of their reunion. “All my life, I’ve been known as Richard Yong. Now I’m glad to be called gauchai, which is the number nine son of the Wong family.”
Watch their heartwarming reunion in the video below!
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