An emotional reunion occurred at the Calgary International Airport on Saturday morning as a boy who escaped from Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War met the man who helped bring him to Canada.

Three-year-old Rick Jocson and his seven-year-old brother remained in communist Laos with their grandmother in the mid-1970s after their parents escaped to Canada as refugees.

Reg Reimer, a missionary who lived in Saskatchewan, was scheduled to depart for Thailand when Jocson’s parents arranged to have him help smuggle their sons out of Laos.

In 1977, Reimer’s attempt was successful. The boys spent time with Reg and Reg’s wife Donna before they were returned to their mother.

Jocson, who lives in Calgary with his family, has little recollection of leaving Laos but a photograph of Reg Reimer has remained a cherished keepsake.

“Over the years he was just this person in a photograph that I heard stories about,” said Jocson. “I kept that photo close by and had always wondered who he was, what he was about and the details about how he smuggled us out of Laos and the journey to Canada.”

The name Reimer stuck with Jocson and he spent years attempting to learn more about the man.

“Every so often I’d come across a Reimer or someone that might have had a connection to Regina or something like that and I would ask ‘Is there a chance you know Reg Reimer?’,” explained Jocson. “Not too long ago, I posed that question to a business colleague of mine, Ross Reimer, Initially, he didn’t think so but then he realized that his dad might know a Reg Reimer.”

Jocson sent a copy of the photograph to his colleague who shared it with his father. The photograph was soon shared with Reg Reimer.

“Reg emailed me and said ‘I’m your guy. I’m Reg.’,” said Jocson. “It was one of those moments that you just are shocked and you sit there and say ‘I think I found the guy who brought my family here, who pretty much altered the course of our lives’.”

Jocson and Reimer, who now resides in British Columbia, arranged to meet in Calgary. On Saturday morning, Reg and Donna Reimer were greeted by Jocson’s family at the airport, a reunion nearly 40 years in the making.

“It’s absolutely special to meet these people,” said Reimer moments after embracing Jocson. “We’d lost complete touch and then, by a series of strange coincidences, Ric found us.”

“It just feels so good to be able to thank somebody for their acts of kindness and selflessness,” said Jocson. “The best way we can (show our appreciation) is to show him our family and show him this is the result of his actions, and Donna’s actions, this is the fruits of their labour. We have a life here, a great life here. We have kids. We have relationships, personal and professional, that have just flourished because of that.”

The Reimers will spend the next few days with Jocson’s family. Jocson says he’s looking forward to the first meeting of two people who played pivotal roles in his escape from Laos.

“My grandma and Reg are going to connect for the first time,” said Jocson. “They’ve only communicated through smugglers in the past and my grandma was the one that had to release us to his people.”

“She trusted the two babies of the family to a stranger who handed her a picture and said you have to give us the boys and they have to be reunited with their mom.”

Jocson says he feels blessed to finally reconnect with the Reimers and looks forward to sharing their lives and starting new experiences.