Cairo: An Egyptian family of a woman, who went missing about 45 years ago, celebrated her return with a street music celebration and passionate hugs in the southern governorate of Beni Sueif.
Reda, now aged 52, had an emotional reunion with her family including her 72-year-old mother Tahia in Beni Sueif’s town of Al Fashn, an online video has shown.
At seven, Reda went missing near a local rail station where her mother used to sell vegetables.
“Her father and I spent years looking for Reda everywhere: at hospitals and streets to no avail,” the mother said in media remarks.
“Days ago, I was surprised when my neighbour Ashraf told me that my daughter who has been absent for 45 years is still alive in [the ancient city] of Luxor. The daughter published her story on social media. I communicated with her via audio and video on the Internet and made sure she is my missing daughter,” the woman added.
One assertion method, according to the mother, that the returnee is her daughter was that at the age of four, the daughter sustained burns in the body after a tray of hot tea had fallen on her.
“Scars of burns are still there and were one way that helped me recognise she is my daughter.”
The daughter, meanwhile, remembered that on the day she went missing she was playing inside a train that moved and took her to Minia, another governorate in the south.
In the ensuing years, she moved among several cities until she settled down in Luxor where she got married and became a mother of five.
“I had a hope that I would be reunited,” she said. “This ray of hope grew like a big light after a Facebook page on social media published my story.”
Reda’s joy over reunion is, however, dampened by the news that her father, a fisher, died years ago because of grief over her absence.
