Excerpt from "The Coloradian" by Tom Hacker"When the New Year's Eve ball drops in Times Square ushering in 1998, two people in the throng will be looking forward to a year full of new faces, old ties and long awaited joy. Daniel Neill and Bertram Hassett, twin brothers separated shortly after birth, will welcome in the new year together for the first time in memory. And they'll be worn out from the revelry of celebrating their 40th birthday together the day before.
"This is by far the greatest present I've ever had", said Fort Collins resident Neill, who will be joining his long lost twin at a Dec 29 reunion at the Albany, NY airport, then at a birthday party Dec 30 at Hassett's nearby home. "Gifts are nothing. This is love". The two were reconnnected Tuesday when Neill learned that his twin was living in Schenectady, N.Y.
The news was delivered by a California Missing Persons Investigator for a $175 fee, and was the culmination of a lifelong quest by each brother for information on the other.
12-30-97, SEPARATED TWINS GET TOGETHER AT LONG LAST. The Saginaw News (AP). Schenectady, NY - Daniel Neill speaks with a Southern drawl and Bertram Hassett sounds like a New Yorker. The twins' carnival worker parents, Bertram and Patricia Hassett, provided few clues into why Neill was put up for adoption in the summer of 1958. Bertram Hassett was told his twin died. The reasons are buried with them [the parents].
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