The De Cora Family’s Reunion--At Long Last

Last week, when he met the family he didn’t know he had, the excitement was almost too much for Bobby De Cora. He cried. He laughed. He squealed with delight when he met his two nephews and baby niece, Stephanie.

When he finally spoke, Bobby De Cora said he had never been so happy in all his life.

“I’m an uncle,” he said. “An uncle.”

The story of the De Cora family reunion began last November when Bobby De Cora, born blind and with cerebral palsy, was reunited with his twin brother, Richard, from whom he had been separated for 10 1/2 years.

The De Cora twins, now 32, had been sent to Lanterman Developmental Center in Pomona when they were 3 years old because their mother and father, Evelyn and James De Cora, both now deceased, felt they could not care for them properly due to their disabilities and because they had four other children to raise.

Bobby, confined to a wheelchair, remained institutionalized at Lanterman until September, 1986, when he was moved to an intermediate care facility for the developmentally disabled handicapped in Pico Rivera. His social worker, Jeri Detering, located Richard, who lives with the Chan family in La Crescenta and attends Braille Institute and Pasadena City College.

Richard De Cora, who is legally blind but has some sight in his left eye, was adopted from Lanterman at age 5 and grew up in South-Central Los Angeles with his adoptive parents, who are deceased. He recalled visiting Bobby at Lanterman over the years, but 10 1/2 years ago, he was mistakenly told his brother had died.

The brothers’ reunion was a joyful one and they spent the holidays together at the home of a friend, Penny Wolfenbarger of Pasadena. But there was more to come.

After reading The Times’ story about the De Cora twins, John Foster of Simi Valley recognized that Richard and Bobby were his twin brothers whom he thought had died.

And there also are brothers Mike and Gary and a sister, Lynn.

John and Gary Foster work together at ITT-Neodyne, an aerospace products firm in Chatsworth, where John, 33, supervises engineering projects and Gary, 31, is in quality assurance.

On Thursday, the entire family was reunited in Los Angeles, where they were born and raised.

Mike De Cora, 36, came from his home in Homestead, Fla., where he is a homicide detective with the Dade County Sheriff’s Department; Lynn De Cora Wills, 39, came from Grants Pass, Ore., where she is a real estate broker.

John Foster brought his wife Donna, their 6-month-old daughter, Stephanie, and sons, Robert, 15, and Tom, 13.

Long, Sad Search

“It’s been 29 years,” said John Foster. “And we thought all along they were dead. Lynn and I tried several times to locate them and couldn’t. Now, this is just unbelievable. It really is exciting.”

When their parents divorced in 1964, John and Gary Foster remained with their mother; Lynn married and moved out of state; Mike stayed with his father before going into the service. John and Gary’s last names were changed to Foster when their mother married Bud Foster.

Late Thursday afternoon the De Cora family taped a segment for the “Hour Magazine” television show, which will be aired later this month, and then went to La Crescenta for a reunion dinner at Stella Chan’s home, where Richard lives.

There were hugs and kisses and tears all around.

“I wanted to have the reunion here, because we’re just like a family, Richard and my son Russell and I,” said Stella Chan. “And I’ve been talking with Richard’s family on the phone and couldn’t wait to meet them. It’s going to take weeks and weeks for them to catch up and to enjoy and treasure what’s happened.”

After finishing the roast beef dinner that Penny Wolfenbarger had prepared, De Cora family members told stories and joked about things they recalled from their childhood.

“Remember those awful grilled bologna and Swiss cheese sandwiches Lynn always fixed?” Gary asked his brother Mike.

Mike De Cora said he did, but not with fondness.

Lynn Wills kidded her brothers about their receding hairlines, a family characteristic. They joked with her, saying she was the only family member without a mustache.

Mike De Cora ribbed his sister about eating so much. “She always could eat the plate, anytime,” he said with a grin.

“Do you guys remember the time we were taking a walk in the hills and I saw this little kitty with a bad eye and we were going to catch it and take it home to make it well?” Lynn Wills said. “We threw John’s jacket over it. But that kitty was black and white. It was a skunk.”

Said John: “I’ll never forget that kitty. I had to take baths for a month after it sprayed us.”

He turned to Bobby and Richard and said, “You see what you got yourselves into, definitely a smart-aleck family. But we’re a bunch of people with a good outlook on life and we like to have a good time.”

Old Pictures Shared

Lynn and John had brought photo albums with them and shared old pictures with the twins, explaining which people were their parents, their grandparents. There was one faded photo of the twin boys, taken when they were a few months old.

“What kind of name is De Cora?” Richard asked his sister.

“It’s French,” she said. “But that’s not the real spelling. It was originally Des Correaux and it was changed.”

John Foster held his tiny daughter close to Bobby De Cora’s wheelchair so his brother could touch her.

Bobby Meets His Niece

Gently, Bobby De Cora touched the baby’s foot and said, “Stephanie, she’s my niece.”

Later on, the De Coras posed for a family portrait with the special cake that a friend of Wolfenbarger’s had made for the reunion. It was white with red roses, and was inscribed: “De Coras--Reunited at Last.”

“This is marvelous,” John Foster’s son, Tom, said of the evening. “You almost can’t believe it.”

Having listened to the family stories and remembrances, Bobby De Cora said to all: “I sure like my family.”

“That’s good, Bobby, because we all like you, too,” said Gary Foster. “This seems like we’ve been together, like a family, for a long time.”