Exclusive | Long lost brother reunited with three siblings in NYC and The Post was there to witness it
On a recent sunny morning in midtown, Alex Blum joined his three younger brothers around a plush banquette at a bistro off Grand Central.The men, who range in age from 63 to 71, playfully ribbed one another, gushing about the grandkids and stealing pancakes off each other’s plate.It looked like they’d all known each other for a lifetime, but it was actually the first time they’d all been together — and The Post was there exclusively to witness it.Blum, 71, always knew he was adopted, but his three brothers never knew of his existence.
About a dozen years ago, he went looking for more information about his biological family and joined 23andMe.“My life began with a mystery, a question, and since then, the world has always seemed to me like a Chinese box, a problem to solve, a puzzle, a search for somewhere to belong, a life story without history or context,” Blum writes in his new book “An Accident of Birth: A Story of Adoption and Identity” (UnCollected Press, out now).After about five years on the now-defunct genealogy platform, he heard from a stranger named Brook.They shared 20% of their DNA, meaning she was likely a niece or grandchild.
She would turn out to be the daughter of his youngest brother, Pete.“It was the moment that changed my life,” writes Blum, a happily married father-of-three who lives in San Diego and works as a filmmaker and consultant.“The next thing I knew I was the oldest of four full brothers.”In 1955, Lee Hart was just 20 years old when she had an affair with a married man named John Stanton and got pregnant.
She had little choice but to give the baby up for adoption.A wealthy, older Upper East Side couple, John and Nancy Blum, adopted the tot and named him Alex.His upbringing was privileged but lonely, despite having an older brother who was also adopted.John worked in marketing at Macy’s and Unilever.
Nancy busied herself with historic preservation organizations and conservation causes.They were cold, distant...