See what the girls have to say

Visit Dorothy's new website

How it all started

On February 12^th 1959 in the small tin mining town of Bukit Besi in Malaysia a set of identical twin girls were born into the family of a poor Chinese wood carver. The family was already very large and the parents were too poor to keep the girls so in order to try and give them a better chance in life they were both put up for adoption.

Unfortunately for the girls they were not taken in by the same family and each was adopted by a separate family. The Alvis family was of Anglo-Dutch descent and they adopted one of the twins who they named Rosabelle Ann. The Loader family was comprised of an English husband, a Chinese wife and another adopted daughter. They took in the other twin who they named Dorothy.

For the first two or three years of the twin’s lives they grew up as neighbours, playing together, visiting each other but all the time unaware that they were identical twin sisters. Eventually the two families moved away from Bukit Besi and sadly did not keep in contact. The twins were not to see each other again until September 2008.

Dorothy’s story

Dorothy remembers watching some footage her father had taken of her playing with a girl in Bukit Besi. She asked her father why there were two of her in the film and was told that it was Rosabelle but was told no more. She was too young to understand the full impact of what she was looking at but she did remember the incident even though the film was eventually lost.

As her adoptive mother was Chinese, Dorothy had not been told she was adopted. She grew up believing that she was her mother’s daughter by birth but at the age of sixteen she discovered her adoption papers by accident and her world, like Belle’s at about the same age, was turned on its head.

Dorothy finally found out she had an identical twin named Rosabelle, the girl in that old lost piece of film, but to her it seemed more like a dream than reality. She did not know her sister’s surname or where she had gone so it was impossible for her to even start to search. Not knowing where to start, she did not bother to even tell her friends about her sister and thoughts of one day finding each other were simply a fantasy best locked away.

Dorothy married, settled down and had children and life just plodded along week after week, year after year.

More years passed, now almost 50 years old, Dorothy had come to believe that life had little else in store  for her. Little did she know of events taking place in far away Australia that would soon change her life forever.

Rosabelle’s story

It was during her first day at school that Rosabelle found out that she had an identical twin sister.

During the day she encountered two sets of identical twins, something she had never seen before and when the school day was over she ran home excited, to tell her mother about her new discovery.

Her mother then sat her down and told her for the first time, that she too had an identical twin. Rosabelle asked where her twin was and why the family had not adopted her too but by now she was seven years old and the two families were no longer in contact so after the initial excitement there was little that could be done.

She was surrounded by a loving family and she was aware from quite an early age that she had been adopted. (Being Chinese, she did not look like the rest of the family so she never had to be told directly.)

Life went on and thoughts of her missing twin were pushed to the back of her mind. The family moved from Malaysia to Singapore and in 1977 Rosabelle was sent to live with an adoptive sister in Australia.

The Search

It was not until 1988, several years after she had married, that Rosabelle decided to try and do something about finding her twin. Initially she wrote to the births, deaths and marriages registrar in Malaysia and asked for copies of her own and her sister’s adoption certificates. They finally arrived and she knew at last that her twin’s name was Dorothy Loader.

A frantic period of searching began through organisations like Jigsaw, the Red Cross, Salvation Army etc. but each attempt drew a blank and hopes started to dim. With the advent of the internet, messages were left on adoption websites and pleas for help went out to all sorts of organisations. (Some of the messages are still there to this day).

Years passed and nothing ever turned up. Was Dorothy still alive? Where in the world was she and if she had married what was her surname now? It all seemed so hopeless but the search continued on and off for 20 years.

It was finally in December 2007 that the first hint emerged that Dorothy may still be alive and living in Malaysia. A message dated 2003 was located on a Malaysian website (Ask VirtualMalaysia.com) asking about Chinese culture. The message was titled:

“Chinese Customs and Taboos :- Fortune telling Birth Marriage Funeral Table Manners Colors & clothing Greetings & salutation”

and was signed: “Dorothy Loader, Selangor my, Wed, July 30, 2003”

Immediate attempts to contact the website came to nothing so desperate pleas for assistance were made to Malaysian television stations and newspapers but they were simply ignored and so hope once again faded away.

More months passed and then a chance search on the internet, one of many hundreds that had been conducted over the years, came up with a new match for the name Dorothy Loader. An article titled ‘Love Takes Work’ in the Malaysian Star newspaper, included a photograph of a very familiar face. On August 1^st 2008 the search for Dorothy Loader, Belle’s identical twin was almost over.

The reunion

As soon as Dorothy’s photograph was discovered, frantic attempts to contact the Star newspaper were made from Australia. Each email sent was returned undelivered and so in frustration ABC Radio in Karratha was contacted in the hopes of getting some assistance.

The information was passed on to the ABC programme ‘Can We Help’ and that same afternoon researcher Sian Gard rang to say that not only did they want to help but they decided to offer to do a story on the reunion and pay to get the twins together for the first time in nearly 50 years.

The ABC organised to fly Dorothy from Malaysia to Perth and to fly Belle and her husband Marc, from Carnarvon to Perth to film the reunion.

A rather frustrating two months of organisation and waiting ensued but on September 24^th Belle was on her way down to Perth. The ABC filmed for three days collecting footage for the story and then at last the big day arrived on September 27^th.

Waiting at Perth International airport was tense. The film crew readied their equipment, Belle was fitted with a radio mike and then came the news that Dorothy’s flight had landed.

With cameras whirring and onlookers staring Dorothy walked out of arrivals and straight in her sister’s waiting arms. The long search was finally at an end and now it was time to try and catch up on all the missing years.

After nearly 50 years apart living in different cultures, you would expect that the twins would grow up to have very different personalities and have quite different likes and dislikes. It quickly became very apparent that this was not the case at all, in fact they were as similar in character as they were in looks.

Everything from their favourite colour - blue, to the food they like, the way they think, eat, talk, laugh and even write are so similar that it is possible to imagine that they had grown up together and never been apart. Even some events in their lives seemed to follow a pattern of sorts.

Rosabelle and Marc flew back to Malaysia with Dorothy on September 30^th and spent the next two months trying to make up for all the lost years.

When the time came to part once again there was a great deal of sadness and tears, but at least now the twins knew where each other lived and there would be many more chances to catch up in the future.

What next?

Belle was able to spend just two months in Malaysia with Dorothy trying to make up for all the time that has been lost. Those two short months together were all the twins have had since they were torn apart so many years ago. They have bonded completely and it is obvious to anyone who sees them together that they should never have been separated in the first place.

Dorothy’s life in Malaysia has been one of hardship and loneliness. She has been terribly unhappy for a long time and finding her sister has rejuvenated her. As for the future, the girls have only one wish, to be permanently re-united and live together in Australia for the rest of their lives.

There is little hope of Dorothy ever being given permanent residence in Australia through normal immigration channels because of her age, so Belle has appealed directly to the Federal Government to allow Dorothy to come and live in Australia on compassionate grounds.

Part of what she wrote is quoted below:

“With each day that goes by my heart is breaking just being separated from her once again. Perhaps only other identical twins may understand the special bond that exists between us but I hope you may be able to understand how devastating it was for me to have to leave my sister in Malaysia.

What greater compassion could there be than to permanently reunite identical twin sisters who have been apart for so long and whose only wish is to spend their remaining years together?

Even after all that has happened to us in the past few years, finding my sister has given me hope. I am confident that with her by my side I can start to rebuild my life.

I desperately need my twin sister with me because apart from my husband, who is going blind, I have no-one. This Christmas will be the most miserable of my life but I am hoping that the Australian Government and you in particular can find it in your heart to give me back my sister who was taken from my life so many years ago.

I beg you to find pity and compassion and grant Dorothy the gift of residence in Australia. We so desperately need each other and I pray to God that this Christmas will be the last one we ever have to spend apart.”

The response from the Immigration Department was a complete shock. They said:

‘While I appreciate your desire to be reunited with your twin sister, under Migration law where the legal relationship between a child and his/her birth parents has been severed by adoption, the legal relationship between the child and his/her birth siblings is also severed. From the information you have provided, it therefore does not appear that your twin sister would be eligible for a permanent visa under the Family Stream of the Migration Program.’

This is a crazy law. Stating that identical twin sisters are not related because of a technicality is un-Australian to say the least. Think about this, a brother and sister adopted out under this law could technically marry and have children without breaking the law.