LYNN — After 30 years without any contact with each other, the Serrano brothers have reunited with the man who they save saved them from a much more difficult life: Lynn native and Merchant Marine Capt. John Nicoll.

The saga begins In1992. After the death of their mother and hospitalization of their father, American born brothers Carlos and Peter Serrano were sent to the Dominican Republic by their aunt, to live with their grandparents. In a chance encounter six months later with Capt. John Nicoll, the Merchant Marine ran into 13-year-old Peter, and realized he should not be in the Dominican. 

After Nicoll returned the boys home they didn’t hear from each other for 30 years. But in November 2022, Nicoll and Peter Serrano finally reunited. And now, all three men continue to stay in touch.

In 1992, Nicoll was working as a merchant marine in Rio Haina, the port city for the capital Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. 

“I’d worked there for a couple of years and I was coming back from the casino, and having that one last beer, we were leaving in the morning, and Peter (Serrano) came up to me and he said, ‘can you help me out with a couple of bucks?’’ Nicoll recounted.

He was taken aback by Serrano’s accent, or lack thereof, and immediately inquired about where the boy was from. So, Serrano told Nicoll that he was originally from Massachusetts, and was currently living down here with his grandparents.

Nicoll then asked why he was living with his grandparents, to which Serrano replied, “well my mother died, and my father’s in the hospital, and so my aunt didn’t want us, so she sent us here.”

While rehashing the story from over 30 years ago, Serrano said that after his mothers death and fathers hospitalization, the Department of Children and Families (DCF) sent the boys to live with their aunt. His aunt then told his grandparents she wanted to send the boys on a “little vacation,” and left them there, cutting all contact soon after.

“(It) really wasn’t like she was Americanized. She didn’t really know much about America. But, she knew to collect our death benefits while we were shipped out of the country,” Serrano said.

“We were out there with no support, no nothing. We just got dropped off on the doorstep of the poorest people that I’ve ever met, which would be my grandparents,” Serrano continued.

The boys’ grandparents lived in “squalor” in a small shack and had no room or money to take care of the two boys. They sent the boys to live in the street. 

Nicoll said that Serrano’s aunts in the Dominican were “ladies of the night,” and spoke little to no English.

“Since I spoke English, a lot of the people over there in squalid conditions didn’t speak English. So, Americans would come off boats, sailors, whatever. The women would want to meet the men so they could get their business orchestrated,” Serrano said. “So then, I stepped in and told my aunts and them, ‘hey listen, you don’t really speak English, you want me to translate for you? I started translating for these (women), so they could get better wages, better income.”

Serrano said he didn’t originally do it for the money, but the women would start giving him a few dollars here and there. He spread his translation services to coffee and rum dealers as well.

“I translated my way to basically survive,” Serrano said.

After Nicoll and Serrano’s first meeting, Nicoll had to leave. So, he told Serrano to get his and his brother’s passports, collect their things, and he’d be back in a few weeks. 

“When I got off the ship several weeks later, … I went to get them, we spent a night in a hotel on the north part of the island … then we flew out and as soon as we landed, I went to (DCF),” Nicoll said. “(The brothers) ended up living with a Dominican lady in the (Lynn) Highlands, the same neighborhood I was born in. And then they bounced around from foster home (to) foster home, then they ended up back in Lawrence.”

Before the boys ended up in foster care, Nicoll tried to bring them to their aunt in Lawrence. Serrano said she was shocked and shut the door in their faces.

“And then, in like a week, she moved out of her house, moved everything, sold everything, and left to Florida because she thought John (Nicoll) was going to report her to the DCF,” Serrano said.

“I did,” Nicoll told Serrano. “But they weren’t quick enough.”

Nicoll kept up with the brothers for the first few months, but eventually, lost contact.

Serrano said that the homes he and his brother were put in were “horrible,” but nothing compared to their previous conditions in the Dominican.

“For any kid that ever thinks how bad DCF is, how bad it is over (in America), they don’t have (any) idea what it’s like in the squalor, third world country conditions with no financial assistance, no guidance, no real adult supervision, nothing,” Serrano said.

Although Serrano preferred the homes to his life in the Dominican, he said that it’s still not a good place to be.

“If you want me to paint the perfect picture, they were crazy. We had been to places where people used to put locks and chains on the refrigerator’s,” Serrano said, adding that the parents would take the money given to them by DCF and spend it on their biological children. “(They’d) buy their kids all types of cool stuff, buy their kids the world. And we’re still in the same t-shirts we were in for probably a year or two.”

The brothers did eventually get separated in the system, and both aged out when they turned 18.

Flash forward to 30 years later, Serrano’s girlfriend was in literal disbelief of his story about the “merchant marine who rescued two brothers,” and asked who the man was. 

With today’s technology, she found Nicoll instantly, messaged him, and brought the men together again.

“I felt good they weren’t in jail. I felt good they were alive,” Nicoll said.

“We were just communicating to say thank you, we weren’t communicating because we needed anything from him. We were just trying to let him know we really appreciate what he did,” Serrano said. “If it’s not for him, our life would’ve turned out completely different.”

Now, the men communicate quite consistently. 

Nicoll is retired and lives in Wolfeboro, N.H., but conducts most of his business and appointments out of Lynn.

Carlos Serrano is 47 years-old and works in construction, traveling all around New England. He’s had three children, with one recently having a daughter of their own.

Peter Serrano is 45 years-old, and is living in Tewksbury at the moment, but planning on relocating. He and his girlfriend just welcomed twin boys Jan. 9.