Her life began in heart-breaking circumstances, but her twilight years have brought indescribable joy to Gill Temple, who has just been reunited with her triplet siblings, David and Helena after 69 years apart.

The triplets (pictured) were born Florence, John and May Hodder in 1932 in Kent.

A day later their mother Kate died. Their father John struggled to look after them, but already had six children to care for and after 18 months made the heart-renching decision to put them up for adoption.

Gill's first cruel encounter with the idea that she was adopted came in the playground when she was 12 years old: "A girl said: 'You're not their real daughter, you have been adopted.'

"I went crying back to my mum, saying 'a girl at school says I have been adopted. What does it mean?' She said: 'It means you are special, you have been chosen'."

Gill, of Barnstaple, spotted a letter in a women's magazine from brother David Welburn which brought two of the threesome together, 25 years ago.

David had been brought up by a grocer in Yorkshire and first discovered he was a triplet at the age of 21 when he began his search for his sisters.

But Gill and David, though overjoyed to have found each other, have spent years trying to trace their missing sibling Helena.

An appearance on the BBC documentary series The Search put them in touch with Norcap, the National Organisation for Counselling Adoptees and Parents, but even their attempts at tracking Helena down, were far from plain sailing.

Under current legislation, the birth families of adopted children have no right to information about those children - even when they are grown up.

But a clause in the act enabled them to take their case to the High Court, where the judge ruled that this was an exceptional case and released the information earlier this year.

Helena Minter, a widow from Kent, was the last of the trio to be found. Brought up by a church minister, she became a children's nurse. She knew she was adopted, but that was all.

She said: "I was very shaken when I heard that my brother and sister had been found. It's all a bit overwhelming. But it's absolutely wonderful to know I belong to a real family."

At a reunion organised by Norcap, Gill said: "We do have a sense of regret about the lost years. We'll have a holiday together in Devon pretty quickly this summer. And then there's all the nephews and nieces, not to mention in-laws to meet."

Gill as a baby

At the reunion, they learned all about each other's families. Gill lives in Barnstaple with husband Jock. She has two children and a grand-daughter.

David, a widower still living in East Yorkshire, has three children, nine grandchildren and three great grandchildren and Helena, a widow who lives in Dartford, Kent, has three children and eight grandchildren.

Only one of the other six siblings is still alive, 74-year-old Patricia - and a 90-year-old aunt who is looking forward to a big family reunion.

Used courtesy of the North Devon Journal

See also:

Triplets reunited after 70 years

Ruling could help reunite triplets