Man adopted as a kid finds family at 59, realizes his former boss was actually his biological brother

For most of his life, Richard Yong believed he was an only son raised by loving parents. But when his adoptive father was on his deathbed, he revealed a secret that would permanently reshape Yong's understanding of his past — he had been adopted. Although this revelation came when Yong was just 27 years old, he chose not to immediately search for his biological family, instead focusing on caring for the woman who had raised him. Years later, after she passed away, Yong began noticing inconsistencies, including a name on his birth certificate that didn’t match hers, prompting him to search for his biological parents.

That led to an endless search for 10 years with no results until November 2021, when, during a routine online search, Yong made a surprising connection. While looking for his best friend’s obituary, he came across another obituary containing a name similar to his friend's but with a different birth year. That gave him the idea to search for his mother by typing in her name along with the word "obituary." The first result showed the obituary of a woman leaving behind eight children, all with the surname Wong, the same as the one that appeared on Yong's original documents. Digging deeper into social media profiles and public records, Yong realized that one of the sons listed, Tom Wong, was not a stranger. He was a senior officer Yong had served under during his time in the Air Force, someone he had worked with closely without either of them knowing they were siblings.

"I still find it hard to believe. I was working with my blood brother all this time?" Yong said in an interview with The Straits Times. The coincidences didn’t end there. Another family friend, Joseph, whom he’d known for 36 years, turned out to be a relative. He reached out to them through Joseph and learnt they were all excited to meet him. One of Richard’s biological brothers, Wong Ming Chee, also known as MC Wong, said he still remembers the day their infant brother was placed for adoption, a decision made out of financial desperation after their father was badly injured in a factory explosion, leaving their mother to care for nine children alone.

When the Wong family finally welcomed their lost-lost brother home, MC said, "We are not going to sit here in the living room. We’re going to move inside, where the Wongs would sit." "This is actually the warmest reception that I had not imagined. It was such a welcoming gesture, accepting me into the family," Yong said, adding that he never imagined they would all be in the same room again. For him, the experience of reconnecting with siblings he never knew existed, especially someone he had worked under for years, was both surreal and healing. Now, embraced by a large extended family, he says he feels a sense of wholeness he never thought possible.

Reuniting with his birth family helped Richard fill the void left by years of unanswered questions. And as studies have noted, these moments of reconnection can be powerful. Many late-discovery adoptees report that even after the initial shock, finally being seen and known by their biological relatives can ease years of emotional burden. The reunion becomes a way of reclaiming a lost narrative, something Yong himself experienced after decades of wondering. "All my life, I’ve been known as Richard Yong. Now, I’m glad to be called [Gao Jai], the number nine son of the Wong family," he said.