A Blinde Date With... Her Brother

Remember that scene from "You've Got Mail" when Joe Fox shows up for a date at Cafe Lalo (my favorite dessert spot in NYC) and, low and behold, discovers it's his bookstore nemesis, Kathleen Kelly?

Sarah Kemp and George Bentley, 2011

Or the scene from "Must Love Dogs" when Diane Lane shows up on a blind date to meet (gasp!) her own father?!

Now for the real life version, which is even more crazy.
Last week, two unassuming singles decided to finally step up their correspondence from the web to the real world. Sarah Kemp, who lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, drove all the way to London to meet George Bentley. They began emailing last November.

When the two met in person last week, it took less than an hour to realize they were actually siblings, estranged for more than 30 years.

As if blind dates weren't awkward enough.

Here's the background.
Kemp, 42, and Bentley, 47, were separated when their parents divorced in 1975. Kemp went with their mother to Scotland while Bentley stayed in England with their father.
In 1989, Sarah married. Although she divorced a year later, she kept her ex-husband's last name, Kemp, making it difficult for George, who was searching for his sister, "Sarah Bentley."

Sarah and George as children

"To meet your long-lost brother, in a bar, after over 30 years would be something by itself," Kemp said. "But to meet him in those circumstances -- on a date, for crying out loud -- really is something else. We obviously had far more in common than first thought," Kemp told Scotland's Daily Record.

"It was such a crazy thing. We had so much in common, and we really enjoyed each other's company. It was as if we'd known each other all our lives."

Welllll... yeah.

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