Lifelong friends in Hawaii find out they are brothers

Mr Alan Robinson (far left) and Mr Walter Macfarlane have been best friends for 60 years. They found out they were brothers while Mr Macfarlane was looking for his father on DNA matching websites.
Mr Alan Robinson (left) and Mr Walter Macfarlane have been best friends for 60 years. They found out they were brothers while Mr Macfarlane was looking for his father on DNA matching websites. PHOTO: KHON2 NEWS/ YOUTUBE

Ever felt so close to a friend you felt like they were family? For two best friends in Hawaii, this turned out to be reality as they found out after 60 years of friendship that they were actually biological brothers.

Hawaiian news channel KHON2 News said in a report on Christmas Eve that Mr Alan Robinson and Mr Walter Macfarlane were best friends for 60 years.

Both of them were born and raised in Hawaii and first met in sixth grade. Mr Macfarlane did not know who his father was, while Mr Robinson was adopted.

Mr Macfarlane had reportedly been searching for his father for years through social media and the Internet, turning to DNA matching websites as a last resort.

He found that a top match - someone with identical X chromosomes - had the username Robi737. Mr Robinson's nickname was Robi and he flew Boeing 737s for Aloha Airlines. Mr Robinson had also been seeking answers about his family on such websites.

After putting two and two together and checking back and forth, the two men realised they had the same mother.

"It was a shock," Mr Macfarlane told Khon2.

Mr Robinson added: "Yeah, it was shock, definitely, and then we thought about it and compared forearms."

Mr Macfarlane chimed in: "Hairy arms, that did it!"

Mr Macfarlane told Hawaiian news site KITV.com that it never crossed his mind that they could be brothers.

Mr Robinson said: "Never crossed my mind either, that's what really amazing, we go back 60 years."

He added that Mr Macfarlane, who is 15 months older, had been like a big brother to him all along.

"You know we'd go to Punaluu (beach) to go skin-diving, I'd be making noise in the water splashing around, he'd be teaching me how to do it right," he told KITV.

"He'd always come out of the water with the biggest string of fish and I had the smallest."

After getting over the shock, the newly reunited brothers said they plan to travel and retire together. They told their families and friends the news over the Christmas weekend, calling it the best Christmas present and miracle they could find.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on December 28, 2017, with the headline Lifelong friends in Hawaii find out they are brothers. Subscribe