my mom grew up in this little village close to the ramstein airforce base in germany. when she was around 10 years old, she babysat for and socialized with this young amercian soldier couple that had several kids and lived in her aunt's house. she became friends with them for several years while they were stationed in germany. eventually they left and moved back to the states. after a few x-mas cards contact was lost.

my mom regretted losing contact with these people, so about 3 or 4 years ago, she started looking online. i don't know the exact details, but eventually she ended up with a list of several dozen people who matched the name and a couple of other tidbits of info. she decided to call each listing, starting at the top. turns out the very first one at the top was the right one. you have no idea how excited my mom was. they talked on the phone a few times, and a few months later my parents came to visit. the couple lived in southern california, and had a camper at a lake outside of fresno, which is about halfway. one weekend we jumped in the car and headed to the campground at the lake, where she met those people again 33 years after their last contact.

they turned out to be a very nice family, very good hearted and friendly folks, and we are all in regular touch now by phone or email.