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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Postal Jobs Reunite Sister And Brother

Associated Press

Some families mail letters to stay in touch. Sorting them brought James Austin and Yvette “Cookie” Richardson together.

Austin and Richardson had worked side by side for two years at Philadelphia’s main post office, shooting the breeze but never prying into each other’s personal life, before learning they were brother and sister.

They hadn’t seen each other in more than 30 years.

A co-worker had figured it out after learning such details as how Austin, 33, had been separated from his mother and sister as an infant.

“Working in the same department side by side,” the 34-year-old Richardson said, shaking her head. “The same place, the same time, every day. What are the odds of that?”

The pair made the discovery in June and have been catching up since, taking their breaks together and trying to “establish a friendship,” Richardson said Wednesday.

Decades ago, their father left their mother, taking 7-month-old James with him. Austin was raised by his paternal grandparents in North Philadelphia; Richardson stayed with her mother in South Philadelphia.