Man Who Found a Long-Lost Brother Discovers a Sister Too

Thousand Oaks businessman John Johnson has had two wishes granted in two weeks.

The first, his lifelong wish for a brother, came true two weeks ago when 35-year-old Dean Gilbert called after hiring a genealogical expert to track down his natural family.

The second came true Thursday, when Johnson came face-to-face with Joleen Swan, a 32-year-old sister whose existence he learned of through Gilbert.

“It’s put me on an emotional overload,” said Johnson, 38, who owns JH Johnson Industries in Lake Sherwood. “It’s really wonderful.”

Swan and Gilbert were given up for adoption at birth by their natural parents, Marylou and John Johnson Sr. of Buena Park. The parents said they never told their three older children, John Johnson and two other daughters, because they were ashamed they had to give up their two younger children for adoption because of their poverty.

Swan, who lives in the San Fernando Valley community of Lake View Terrace, said the meeting for her also culminated a lifelong wish to find the family she never knew.

Gilbert, who grew up in San Diego, decided to find his natural parents this year, he said.

The family--parents, two sisters and two brothers--reunited last Saturday, but they were still missing the remaining sister, Iloann.

Born in 1958, Swan was adopted by a family who lived in Arcadia. Members of the Johnson family decided to search for her after they met Gilbert, a respiratory therapist who lives in the San Diego County community of Pine Valley.

The search proved difficult because Swan had changed her name. Born Iloann, she married twice and used a middle name instead of her first name.

Last Sunday, the same genealogical expert who helped Gilbert track down his family called John Johnson to tell him that Iloann, now Joleen, had been found living nearby.

Johnson was the first to meet both his brother and his sister. He said Joleen is the spitting image of his older sister, Pat Adams, 40, who lives in Phoenix.

“I was raised pretty much as an only child,” Swan said. “I’ve never been part of a real big family, so it’s going to take some getting used to.”

She said she plans to meet her birth parents on Saturday in their house in Buena Park, and a reunion of the entire family is planned for Dec. 22 at Johnson’s home in Thousand Oaks.

Gilbert said he is satisfied now that the last sibling has been found. He plans to meet with his sister and her family on Tuesday, somewhere between Los Angeles and San Diego.

“I think it was meant to be,” Gilbert said. “It came at an important part in all of our lives.”