“Before I leave this world or before you leave this world, I will find your brother,” Lawanda Butler told her mother, Mary Godfrey.

Godfrey’s brother, Clover Mathis, left home after he graduated from high school vowing to become a professional dancer. He took a train to Atlanta and enrolled in ballet classes at Southern Ballet School in Buckhead, Ga., in June of 1966.

He danced with the Atlanta University Center Dance Theater and his first performance was in Eugene O’neil’s “The Emperor Jones.”

After seeing him perform with the Atlanta University Center Dance Theater, Arthur Mitchell invited him to join his new company, Dance Theater of Harlem. So, in the spring of 1969, Mathis moved to New York City, N.Y. He had accomplished what he had vowed within three years.

He went on tour and danced in Europe and Japan throughout his many years as a dancer. He also danced with the Boston Ballet and taught dance classes at Humboldt State University in Northern California. He even went back to Atlanta in 1975 to perform “The Nutcracker” but still did not see his family.

His niece, Lawanda Butler, started searching for him in 2001 because her mother had never given up hope that he was alive and well, when all of his other siblings were sure that he was dead.

“My mother never gave up hope and she motivated me to look for him,” said Butler.

All she had to go on was a tattered letter that her mother had received from Mathis in 1971, which was the last communication that she had with him. Butler pieced the letter together and searched the Internet for the dance companies that Mathis had mentioned in his letter. She e-mailed each organization her story and soon after received many letters responding to her queries. Many of the dancers remembered Mathis fondly, and Arthur Mitchell, director of the Dance Theater of Harlem, said that he would love to have him come and dance with his company again. Butler was able to speak with dancer Keith Sanders and he said that he would “do everything that he could to help her find her uncle.”

Sanders attended the funeral of a dance community denizen and was introduced to actress Pat Franklin who happened to be best friends with Mathis. He gave her Butler’s address and she was passed it on to Mathis.

In November, after 39 years, Mathis wrote a letter home letting them know that he was alive and in San Francisco, Calif., where he had moved in 1983.

“I got the letter on Nov. 4th and started screaming for my mother,” Butler said.

There were quite a few people at the house on that day because one of Godfrey’s brothers had died the day before the letter came. Butler ran into the house and read the letter to a room full of people, including her mother’s other siblings.

“God took one of my mother’s brothers away and then gave one back to her. He always has a plan,” said Butler.

Through the letter, they learned that Mathis is currently working for an attorney in San Francisco and at 57 years old is attending college to get his bachelor’s degree in performing arts. He would like to open his own dance studio and start his own dance company there.

Mathis has been in constant contact with his family since his first letter in November and plans to visit them in 2006.

“It’s a relief, a joy, and a happiness. I hope to see him soon face to face,” remarked Godfrey.