I will always remember the moment I met my granddaughter Ophelia. She got out of her car and our eyes met.
There was an instant connection and within seconds we were hugging each other and crying.
See, for the first nineteen years of Ophelia’s life, I didn’t know I had the disease. granddaughterI learned of her three years ago, when I was 61, doing my family tree.
I was 16 when I met my then-girlfriend, Camille. Camille, she was 18 years old and she was a year and a half older than me. childhood sweetheart, we were crazy about each other and she got pregnant soon after. She soon enlisted in the Army to feed her and her unborn baby girl.
But it wasn’t.Her family was horrified when she found out she was pregnant and she threatened to sue me legal turnip if i disagree adoption our baby.
I was heartbroken and angry, but I felt helpless. So I told my daughter, a little girl named Sarah, that when she turned 18, I would give her all my contact information and social security number so that she would want to get in touch with me. wrote a letter to
Forced to live separately from Camille, he served in Iraq, Kuwait and Europe.
But no matter where I was, I never forgot my daughter. I never gave up on her hope that one day I would meet her and be a part of her life.
Even when he returned from the army in 1981, married his current wife, Elizabeth, and had children with Melanie and Alex, the first child never left his mind.
As soon as Facebook started, I put my information out there so she could find me.
But I never heard from her.
Then, in 2018, Melanie underwent a DNA test. myheritage.comlaunched a project focused on reuniting adoptees with their biological families to learn more about our family ancestry.
See, I was adopted too, and one of the only things I knew about my biological mother was that she was part of the Cherokee Indians. Melanie wanted to know more.
I turned in DNA samples shortly afterward in hopes of finding Sarah, but my half-brother Tom was the first to discover.
Being seven years younger than me, our DNA confirmed that we shared a father. I had heard that my father died when I was 4 years old, but actually my father died when I was 11 years old. I don’t know if he knew I was born.
Incredibly, Tom lives less than a mile from my house in Kansas City and has lived there for 20 years.
When I met him in December 2018, his face and clothes were all similar. We drive trucks and ride bikes and still run into some coincidences.
We had attended some of the same community events and he was shopping at the grocery store where my wife worked.
And in the summer of 2019, there was another match. Ophelia this time. my granddaughter.
As it happened, Ophelia was also doing a DNA test to find her family, so when I started messaging her, I think she really couldn’t believe she had found someone who could lead me to my daughter.
So we finally got to meet in person on July 15th, 2019. When she got out of the car, I could see both me and Camille on her face.
We talked non-stop for two and a half hours. Of course, I was worried to hear about her mother, my daughter, and when I found out seven years ago that she died of an accidental overdose, it cut a part of my heart apart. I got
I will never meet my beloved girl.
Ophelia explained that her mother, who was renamed Angela by her adoptive parents, lived in Missouri, 45 minutes east of where I lived, and had enlisted in the Navy, just like I had.
“You look just like her,” Ophelia told me, showing me pictures of her and Angela, of Angela dancing, of her on vacation with friends. At that moment, the sun seemed to shine on me.
It was heartbreaking to hear that Angela had passed away, but I couldn’t help but be overjoyed to see Ophelia. I was her only biologically living relative, so I knew it meant a lot to her.
Now Ophelia, Tom and I will be a part of each other’s lives forever. I am very happy to have met them.
Homme and I meet every Sunday to watch the Kansas City Chiefs and sometimes go camping or motorcycle rallies together.
I emailed and called Ophelia as often as I could and was at her reception on the day she and her now husband, Luke, got married in February of this year.
I was able to complete my family tree by doing a DNA test and gain connections I didn’t know were missing.
*A story told to Rashi Agarwal
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tomorrow : What does DNA stand for, where was it found, and who discovered it?
tomorrow : Woman adopted at birth finds long-lost mother and entire family living in Canada
