Woman reunited with family
One man’s wish and his daughter’s determination to make that wish come true have brought a family together after more than 30 years. For the Williams/Burkey family, their first family reunion Saturday in Lick Hollow State Park was truly a joyous occasion, as they were reunited with their cousin and niece for the first time in since she was 4 years old.
Lori Rokosky, now 39, was all smiles as she met her family from Dunbar, South Connellsville and Lemont Furnace, some of them for the first time. Between hugs and kisses, people would tell her who they were and how they were related.
Relatives said Lori, who now lives in Brockway, is the “missing link” who “completes the family circle.”
When Lori’s father, George “Tom” Thomas, was killed in a hunting accident in 1968, Lori’s mother moved away, moving her daughter from Ohio to Dunbar to Connellsville and then to Dubois, losing touch with her father’s side of the family.
That is until Thomas’ brother Clarence Burkey of Ohio told his children how much he wanted to reunite with his niece, the only connection he had to his deceased brother.
One day, when Burkey and his family were driving through Erie, thoughts of his niece popped into his head. He told his children that if he had one wish, it would be that he be reunited with his niece.
Later, they would find out that Lori and her husband, Randy, were staying at a hotel overlooking the very street the Burkeys were on when Clarence made his wish.
Tana Burkey, Clarence’s daughter, said she saw the pain in her father’s eyes when he made his wish known.
“My dad lost both his brother and his niece at the same time. He thought he would never see her again. I told my daddy, ‘Dad, I will find her,'” Tana said, tears running down her face.
And she did.
Lori Rokosky, who turns 40 today, and uncle Clarence, who will celebrate a birthday Tuesday, were reunited.
“He told me this was the best birthday present anyone could have given him,” said Tana Burkey.
The Burkeys hail from this area and still have family and friends here. So Tana called a friend, Patty Bryner in Lemont Furnace, and with her help was able to contact Lori’s grandmother in Connellsville.
“The first number Patty gave me was the one that connected me to my cousin. I knew then that it was destiny. I knew I would find my cousin,” Tana Burkey.
Tana said she immediately called Lori, only to get an answering machine a number of times. But she didn’t mind. She was nervous to call her long lost cousin anyway.
“I was nervous. I didn’t know how she would receive me,” Tana said. “I didn’t want to be rejected.”
When Tana told her father she had found Lori, she said her dad was so happy he cried.
“Lori went through life thinking we didn’t care. I didn’t want that. We all cared for her. I was close to her when she was a little girl,” Clarence Burkey said.
Lori said she was surprised to hear from her father’s side of the family. She had always wondered about them but never knew much about them.
She said many times while visiting her family in Dunbar she would walk past people and wonder if they were her family.
Lori said her mother, Debra Shipley, was only 19 when her father was killed at age 25. She said that after her father died, her mother moved to the Dunbar home of her great-grandparents, Charles and Marie Binkey.
She said her great-grandparents owned a little store there near the Veterans of Foreign Wars and later sold it to the VFW before they passed away. A parking lot now takes its place there.
While Lori said she had a happy childhood and a wonderful stepfather, she always wondered about her father and his family. She said she tried to contact them when she was 26 but was unsuccessful.
“My mother tried to talk to me about them, but I didn’t know what happened. I didn’t know she took me from them. I didn’t know they cared,” she said.
“My mom never accepted my dad leaving her. She still has a hard time talking about it. I don’t want to hurt her, so I rarely brought it up. There’s still a lot I don’t understand, but as time goes on I’m learning.”
Lori said she felt a connection to her family as soon as she met them.
“I was scared and nervous, but a missing part was starting to be fulfilled,” she said. “I felt such a strong feeling when I hugged my Uncle Clarence. There was a bond. It was weird, but it feels like I’ve always known these guys. I fit right in,” she said.
Clarence said seeing Lori again “was like a miracle.”
“She’s our missing link. She’s the connection to my brother. He’s still with us through her,” he said.