BUTLER TWP — Although Jo Renée (Tackett) Motko only spent three months with her Indian family as a 16-year-old AFS exchange student, the dream she realized of reuniting with them brings tears to her eyes.

As a Knoch High School junior, Motko went through the interview process required to apply for the American Field Services program, which sees high school students live overseas with a host family for a few months.

She was accepted into the AFS program, and she figured she would be sent to Europe like most youths at the time.

“I was the first Butler County AFS student to go to Asia,” Motko said.

She said the AFS organization selects the country where a student will travel, and matches him or her with a family most similar to their American family.

“I was scared and nervous, but excited too,” Motko said of traveling to Madras, India, which is now named Chennai.

She left New York City on a ship with hundreds of other AFS students from all over the United States and sailed for 10 days to Rotterdam in the Netherlands, where the students boarded planes to take them to their host families’ cities and towns.

“It was my first boat ride and my first plane ride,” Motko said. “AFS paid for everything. My family could not have afforded it.”

Her plane to India contained a total of six AFS students.

“But they were from all over the U.S., so I didn’t know a soul,” Motko said.

She had exchanged letters and pictures with Daulet Mahtani, her host father, and his 18-year-old daughter, Anu, before the trip.

Unlike the rest of the family, which also included younger sister, Laju, and younger brother, Anil, her host mother, Koshlya Mahtani, did not speak English.

“They met me at the airport,” Motko recalled. “It was very joyful. They clapped when I got off the airplane.”

The inexperienced American teenager felt as comfortable as possible living with a family in India.

“They were compassionate and welcoming,” Motko said. “They were excited to open their home to me.”

She said her host father immediately sent a telegram to her American father to report that Motko had arrived safely at her destination.

Her host father owned India Silk House, which made and sold sari outfits for women, so the family had a cook, housekeeper, driver, seamstress, landscaper and other servants to attend to their every need.

“I remember the seamstress made me some Indian clothes,” Motko said.

She shared a bedroom with Anu and even attended classes with her host sister as a visitor at Stella Maris University.

Motko said for fun, her host father took the kids to get ice cream, and the family went to the beach twice while she was there and toured all of southern India.

She remembers visiting multiple Hindu temples and recalls cows freely roaming the streets because they are considered sacred in the Hindu religion.

Sometimes, lizards would get into the house, but they could not be killed because Hindis believe in reincarnation.

Also, Indians did not use toilet tissue, and it could not be purchased easily, so her American mother enclosed sheets of toilet tissue in the letters she wrote each day.

Her host dad also realized Motko’s need for the tissue.

“My dad was able to go out and buy me some,” Motko said. “He really treated me so special.”

She said the large Mahtani home had “one toilet and several holes.”

“It was a whole new world,” Motko said, “but I survived.”

Because she could not eat the spicy food prepared by the family’s cook, her host father took her to the train station once per week for an American omelet.

“He made sure I ate,” Motko said, her eyes welling up. “My dad was so good to me.”

While in India, Motko and dozens of other AFS students in India had an audience with Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, met with the mayor of Madras and visited the Taj Mahal.

After a fun and educational three months, Motko said her goodbyes to her Indian family and returned to southeastern Butler County to prepare for her senior year at Knoch.

For a long while she stayed in touch with her host family and the two neighbor boys she had befriended in Madras.

“But life happens, and I got away from a lot of the contacts,” Motko said.

Although she attended the wedding in India of her nephew, it was on the opposite side of the country and she was unable to visit the Mahtanis.

Her beloved Indian parents eventually passed on, and Anu was killed in a vehicle crash, which also brings tears to Motko’s eyes.

Then Motko and Laju located each other on Facebook. It turns out Laju and her brother, Anil, and their families live near one another in the suburbs of Miami.

That contact morphed into letters, phone calls and gift exchanges through the mail for several years.

“As I am getting older, I said to my husband, ‘Something I’d really like to do is go to Florida and reunite with these people,’” Motko said. “Dave said ‘That could be your birthday present.’”

The couple flew to Miami in late April and stayed with Jo’s brother, Carter Tackett, in Bradenton, Fla.

While there, a neighbor boy Motko had befriended in Madras, Rajiv Kapur, drove three hours one way to have lunch with her and Dave.

The Motkos then rented a car to drive to Miami for a daylong visit with the surviving Mahtanis.

The reunion was as joyful as her arrival at the airport in India 56 years before, and they spent seven hours together laughing, reminiscing, catching up and telling old stories.

“I cried,” Motko said. “I had always dreamed that I would see them again. It only took 56 years, so never give up on your dreams.”

During the visit with her host family, Motko pulled out a box that represented the second reason for the reunion.

“I saved all the cards and letters I received from them over 56 years, and I gave them all to them so they could take a walk down memory lane,” Motko said. “They were so excited.”

Laju Kapai said during a phone call on Thursday with her American sister that the visit brought back countless memories of a treasured part of her childhood.

“It was like I was 9 years old again,” Kapai said. “I enjoyed every moment I had with her. It’s really, really beautiful and sweet of Jo and Dave to come here and visit with us.”

Motko is thrilled to have realized her five decade dream of seeing her Indian family again.

“I am feeling extremely blessed,” she said.