Positivity: Reunited With My Dad After 47 Years
From Scotland (HT Good News Blog):
December 14, 2007
WHEN Ken Agland and Carol Wallace met for the first time in 47 years, neither could help shedding tears.
They had been brought together in a hotel in Inverurie, a father and daughter who hadn’t seen each other in nearly five decades.
Until that moment, all Ken had been to Carol was a hazy memory of a bulky figure who used to build her toy models.
For Ken, Carol was still the little girl he had last seen when she was aged just four and whose photographs he had treasured all that time.
But when the tears finally subsided, the two strangers faced trying to get to know each other once again.
Thankfully, time had not broken the father-and-daughter bond and the pair are now, just four months since they were reunited, the best of friends.
Ken, 76, said: “Meeting Carol has made my life complete.
“I have never forgotten her and I can still remember the last time I saw her.
“That’s an image I have carried with me through the years. Meeting her again was an incredibly traumatic and emotional moment. But, at the same time, it never actually felt as if we had been apart for all those years.
“It was just like seeing someone who had just come back into my life but who I have always known, especially once we were able to dry our tears and actually start talking.”
Mum-of-six Carol, 51, added: “I was incredibly nervous and anxious about meeting Ken.
“I didn’t know what to expect but, once we had been together five or 10 minutes and stopped wiping the tears from our eyes, it just seemed so easy.
“It felt strangely familiar and we had a great conversation.”
Ken, who is originally from London, met Carol’s mum, Jean, when he was stationed with the RAF near Peterhead in Aberdeenshire.
They married in 1956 and baby Carol arrived not long after. They were a happy family but problems arose when Ken, who had left the RAF after five years, struggled to find work as an electrician.
He said: “I ended up having to work away from home a lot, which isn’t what you want when you are a newly married man.
“It eventually came to a point where I couldn’t get regular work, so I decided it would be best to come down south, find better employment and a home for us all to live in.
“Then Jean told me there was no way she was leaving Scotland and I didn’t want to go back into the situation where I couldn’t work.
“I am sorry to say things just went downhill from there. Looking back, I don’t think you can blame anyone, it was just such a different world back then.” …..
Go here for the rest of the story.
