When people are close friends for a long time, they often refer to each other as siblings. For those who are only children, it’s the only way you can have a brother or a sister.
Well, a couple of best friends in Hawaii have been treating each other as brothers since elementary school — and it turns out they are.
Alan Robinson and Walter Macfarlane, born 15 months apart, first met in the sixth grade and quickly bonded. The fact that both had questions about their birth parents may have contributed to their friendship: Robinson was adopted, and Macfarlane never knew his father.
Macfarlane took his search to the internet and social media but came up blank. That led him to try out a genealogy website that also provides DNA testing.
The results he got back were surprising. He got a number of close matches back with other users, but someone with the username Robi737 had the exact same X chromosome.
Alan Robinson’s nickname is “Robi,” and he’s a pilot who flies 737s.
Robinson had used the site to find answers about his own family, and suddenly he also heard about another user being a perfect match.
Macfarlane said: “It was a shock.” Robinson agreed: “It was an overwhelming experience, it’s still overwhelming. I don’t know how long it’s going to take for me to get over this feeling.”
One can only imagine. After all, this is the kind of thing that would be labeled too unbelievable an ending for a movie. Yet it happened.
Now Robinson and Macfarlane are planning to spend their retirements together. The fact that these siblings also shared a childhood together probably contributed to that plan: after all, they’ve been virtual brothers all this time, anyway.
Robinson said: “This is the best Christmas present I could ever imagine having.”
To be honest, I’m stumped as to what could possibly top it.
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