text: Less than two weeks after making a last-ditch attempt to find her biological father, a Belgian woman says a Canadian family has given her the piece of her identity she's been missing all her life. 
   
   Florence Heene, 71, had only a few photos and the knowledge her father was a Canadian soldier named "Herbert" stationed in Ghent, Belgium, during the Second World War to go on when she posted a plea for information on Facebook earlier this month. 
   
   Over the weekend, descendants of a veteran from Vancouver named Herbert Louis Hellyer saw Heene's photos published in a CBC News story, recognized their late grandfather and contacted her. 
   
   In an interview from her home in Eeklo, Belgium, Heene told CBC News she was sure Herbert Hellyer was indeed her father. 
   
   "I have the piece [of my life] that I was looking for," Heene said. "Now I can close it." 
   
   Hellyer, who died in 1948, has three surviving children — a son and two daughters who all live in B.C. One of his daughters, Thelma Janes, said she's in "absolute shock" to learn about the existence of a half-sister. 
   
   'Didn't even know about her' 
   
   "I'm 79 and at 79 to find out you have a 71-year-old sister," she said. "To think all these years and we didn't even know about her. I'm getting tears now just thinking about it." 
   
   Hellyer's other daughter, Betty Ingram, is the oldest child but suffers from dementia. It was her granddaughter, Kristy Demidoff, who had read the CBC story about Heene's search for her father. When she saw the picture of the man Heene believed to be her father, Demidoff thought it looked familiar. She went into her mother's old photos and pulled out the identical picture. 
   
   She sent a photo of Hellyer to CBC News, as well as to Heene. 
   
   "It's amazing, truly amazing. This is the only picture our family has of him," said Carol Demidoff, Ingram's daughter and Kristy's mother. 
   
   That picture, which is signed "Love from Daddy, XXXXXX" had been sent during the war to Ingram. 
   
   This was the only clear picture Florence Heene had of the man she believes is her biological father, a picture that matches with one held by a B.C. family. (Florence Heene/Facebook) 
   
   Demidoff herself and other relatives have since been in contact with Heene through Facebook. 
   
   "We're very excited. We're all very happy," Demidoff said. "We hope to get to meet Florence some day ... and try to give her as much information as we can and welcome her into our family." 
   
   Hellyer had 5 children 
   
   The family has been able to fill in some details about Herbert Hellyer's life. He was born in England and emigrated to Canada when he was just a boy. His family ended up in B.C., where he would become a printer by trade. Hellyer would later marry and have five children, before enlisting as a soldier in 1939 and heading off to Europe. 
   
   Herbert L. Hellyer was buried in a Vancouver cemetery after his death in 1948. His family says he died by suicide and had suffered a head injury just days before the war ended in 1945. (Carol and Kristy Demidoff) 
   
   He spent six years there as an instructor in the army, but just days before the war ended, he was thrown out of a jeep, then hit by a truck, suffering a serious brain injury. 
   
   When he returned to B.C., he was dealing with mental health issues and ended up at the Shaughnessy Hospital for veterans. In 1948, while at the hospital, he died by suicide at the age of 35. 
   
   Heene said she's sad that her father died so tragically, but is very glad she has found a "new family" in Canada. 
   
   She first saw the man she came to believe was her father while rummaging through a box of photos as a child. Her mother originally told her the soldiers in the photos were uncles, but eventually said that one of them was her biological father, with whom she had had a relationship when he was stationed in Ghent. 
   
   Mother wouldn't reveal Herbert's last name 
   
   Their relationship ended when he left to fight elsewhere and she married the man who became Heene's stepfather. 
   
   Although her stepfather raised Heene as his own, and she had a happy family life with her brother and sister, Heene desperately wanted to know more about her personal history. 
   
   Her mother never wanted to talk about the relationship and didn't reveal her father's last name, Heene said. "It was very difficult." 
   
   Janes said her own childhood was very difficult. After her father left for the war, her mother was infected with tuberculosis and spent years recovering in a hospital. The children were sent to foster homes and it wasn't until her father returned that the whole family was reunited. 
   
   The reunion, however, was not a happy one. Janes said she doesn't have many memories of her father, but those she does have are not pleasant. When her father returned, he was very temperamental and despondent, behaviour likely related to his brain injuries, members of the family say. 
   
   Janes said she recalls that her father and her mother would have terrible fights, which only stopped when he was admitted to the veterans' hospital. Those circumstances and issues may have taken their toll on the family. Janes and her two siblings are estranged and do not speak. 
   
   Hopes to get acquainted with sister 
   
   Despite her own family dynamics, Janes said she wants to get acquainted with her newly discovered half-sister. She hasn't yet been in contact with Heene, but hopes to soon. 
   
   "I just want to chit chat with her and try and get friends with her," she said. 
   
   Janes doubts that her father ever knew about Heene's existence but is not at all bothered that he had an affair. 
   
   "I'm an elderly woman, I know what went on in the war and it's to be expected," she said. "That part doesn't get me in the slightest. The part that we never knew about each other gets me." ||||| Do you know Herbert? 
   
   I’m sure someone out there does. If you do and you’re reading this, you can help Florence Heere, a deserving woman in Belgium, fill in some missing blanks in her life. Herbert is her biological father. 
   
   Florence Heere 
   
   Herbert was a Canadian soldier serving in Europe during World War II. In the autumn of 1944, while the First Canadian Army was advancing up the channel coast of northern France and Belgium into Holland (knocking out German V-2 rocket launch sites and liberating long-suffering peoples from the Nazis), Herbert was stationed for a while in the Belgian city of Ghent. There he met a young woman named Augusta and the two had a love affair. Then Herbert went back to war and was never heard from again in Ghent. 
   
   Augusta Ryckoort 
   
   But Augusta never forgot Herbert. She was pregnant and had a daughter she named Florence. Florence is now an elderly woman and is trying to find Herbert, her biological father — or, more likely, information about him since so few soldiers of that generation are still alive — while she is still able. Florence knows very little about Herbert … but let’s let her tell her own story. 
   
   On Friday, while Donald Trump was being sworn in as President of the United States, Florence Heere posted this letter and these photos on social media: My name is Florence, I am desperate and this is my last hope. My mother was named Augusta Ryckoort. She lived in Eeklo and worked in Ghent during the 2nd World War in Belgium. It was there that she met my biological father. He was Canadian and stationed in Ghent — his name was Herbert. They had a short but beautiful relationship, but it wasn’t meant to be, because he was called to the front. There ends my father’s story — nothing is known of him since then, but the story didn’t end there for my mother — she was pregnant and was expecting me. She never heard of Herbert again and — to my regrets — she never wanted to talk much about him. It is unknown if he was killed in the war or if he is still alive. A while later, my mother met another man, Julien, and married him. He raised me as his own child and took care of my other brother and sister. We didn’t have a lot, but we were happy. Today I am 71 years old and I have been trying to find my biological father for all my life, without results. It is my greatest wish to find out more about Herbert, my biological father: Is he still alive or how and when did he die? Do I have any other (half) brothers or sisters? The only information I have about him, is his name (Herbert) and a picture. I send you the picture in attachment. If you have any information of any leads whatsoever, please contact me. Sincerely & hopefully yours, Florence 
   
   Since Florence posted her letter and photos, the search for Herbert has gained a bit of traction in Canada, but it’s far from over. Florence still needs your help. 
   
   Here’s what we’ve learned in the past few days: 
   
   The stripes on his uniform indicate that Herbert was a sergeant. Based on the shape of the cap badges of Herbert and his friend, one knowledgable military researcher says they appear to have been in the Royal Canadian Artillery. 
   
   Now here’s the tricky part: It’s fairly easy to find the identities of Canadian soldiers from World War II IF THEY DIED IN THE WAR; it’s not so easy if they survived the war and returned home to be discharged. Another military researcher has found that 481 Canadian soldiers named Herbert died during World War II, according to Archives Canada records. And yet another researcher determined that two of those dead Canadian soldiers named Herbert were members of the Royal Canadian Artillery — but, in both cases, Herbert was a middle name, not a first name. 
   
   So it’s probable that Florence’s father survived the war, returned home to Canada, was discharged and built a life here with family and friends and neighbours and co-workers, any of whom might recognize the photo of Herbert. 
   
   All in all, that’s a pretty amazing job of information gathering in just a couple of days. But Florence still does not have the answers she needs. She still needs your help. 
   
   Here’s a link to a piece on Florence and her search that ran on Monday’s evening news on VTM, Belgium’s principal private Dutch-language television channel. The item on Florence begins near the 48:50 mark. 
   
   If you think you might be able to solve the mystery of who Herbert is, please get in touch with me through this blog and I’ll get you in touch with Florence. Let’s find Herbert and give Florence some answers. 
   
   Categories: News 
   
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target: – For 71 years, "we didn't even know about her. I'm getting tears now just thinking about it," says Thelma Janes of Canada, days after discovering she has a Belgian sister. Janes' father, Herbert Louis Hellyer, married and had five children in British Columbia before heading off to war in 1939, reports CBC News. He returned from Belgium after six years, having suffered a serious brain injury, and committed suicide in 1948. Unbeknownst to any of his children in Canada, Hellyer also left behind their half-sister overseas, the result of an affair he had while stationed in Ghent. Belgium's Florence Heene, 71, who knew only that her father was a Canadian soldier named Herbert, found his photo in a box of her mother's things and shared it on Facebook recently in an effort to find out more about him. Hellyer's great-granddaughter saw the photo circulating in the media in Canada—a blogger at the Toronto Sun was among those on the case—and thought it looked familiar. In a box of her own mother's items, she found an identical picture Hellyer had sent home during the war, signed, "Love from Daddy." "I'm an elderly woman, I know what went on in the war and it's to be expected," Janes, 79, says of her father's affair. But the discovery of a half-sister left her in "absolute shock," she says. Several family members have since reached out to Heene to share their father's story and to welcome her to the family. Heene, for her part, tells the CBC that "I have the piece [of my life] that I was looking for," she says.