A Hawaiian man searching for his father made the startling discovery that his best friend of 60 years is actually his half-brother. Walter Macfarlane of Oahu never knew his dad and decided to dig for answers online before finally using a DNA matching website, local channel KHON reported. At the top of the list of his DNA matches on Ancestry.com was the username Robi737, he told the outlet. Turns out, his friend Alan Robinson — a former 737 pilot for Aloha Airlines — had also used the service to find answers about his birth family.
Robinson was adopted and imagined that he would never find his birth mother. He lost a brother at age 19, so he also thought he would never have any nieces or nephews. The results revealed the pair had several matches in DNA including identical X chromosomes — and that they had the same birth mother.
“It was a shock!” Macfarlane said.
“Yeah, it was a shock, definitely,” Robinson added.
The two men were born and raised in Hawaii. They are 15 months apart in age and have been friends since they met in the sixth grade. They revealed the discovery to friends and family Saturday night and are looking forward to enjoying their retirement and traveling together.
“It was an overwhelming experience, it’s still overwhelming. I don’t know how long it’s going to take for me to get over this feeling,” Robinson said.
“This is the best Christmas present I could ever imagine having,” he added.
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