Father and Daughter Reunited
| Have you ever seen that show Unsolved Mysteries? You know, the one
that sometimes shows people who have been searching for other people
for many years without being able to find them. Well, today I was
part of one of those missing persons mysteries. I received an e-mail
from a woman and who had been searching for her father, Erique, for
15 years. She had lost contact with him when he moved to Costa Rica
and through a series of unfortunate events she lost his contact information.
At the same time, she had to move changing her address and phone number.
As a result neither knew how to get in touch with the other for the
next 15 years. She had tried family and friends but all had lost contact
over the years. Her e-mail explained that while searching the Internet
for her father she came across my website and lo and behold there
was a picture of her father who I had met in Costa Rica five years
earlier. She immediately contacted me on how to get in touch with
her father. I hadn't seen or spoken to her father in the past five
years but he was so kind and hospitable while we were there that I
had put together these web pages talking about my visit and his hospitality.
By a strange twist of fate I had just the previous week found the
business card he had given me and written his home and cellular phone
numbers on. One must always use caution when dealing with strangers
on the Internet. Not wanting to give Enrique's phone number to someone
I didn't know, I decided to call him and make him aware of the situation.
That, however, turned out not to be such an easy task. Several of
the phone numbers I had were no longer in service. Finally, the very
last phone number I tried, was answered by a woman who knew Enrique.
Thanks to her kind patience with my very badly broken Spanish I was
able to obtain another phone number. Upon calling this number I had
much the same experience and was given another phone number, which
turned out to be Enrique's home phone number. However, Enrique was
not home at the time so I had yet another number to reach him on his
cellular phone. I wondered if Enrique would even remember me since
we had only known each other for about a week and it had been five
years ago. I was very pleasantly surprised when Enrique immediately
remembered my wife and I. When I told him the story of how someone
claiming to be his daughter had contacted me he immediately let out
a joyful cry. Yes indeed, he had lost contact with his daughter years
earlier and was so delighted that I knew how to get in touch with
her. I quickly gave him her phone numbers and agreed to call her in
California and give her his phone numbers just to make absolutely
sure they could contact one another. I did this and had a very pleasant
conversation with her. She was so so happy. Later that day I received
a follow-up e-mail from her telling me how much she enjoyed being
able to talk to her father again after all these years. They have
made plans to be reunited in person very soon. I'm so happy to be
able to be part of this story. It gave me one of those warm all over
feelings for days. Actually, I still get the feeling. Perhaps it will
never go away whenever I think of them being reunited. |
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