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This story we are going to tell you is that of a veteran and his daughter.
Gary Barnes was serving in Vietnam when he met a woman from the Philippines with whom he had an affair. After the end of the war, the two loose contact with each other.
He only found out at the age of 78 that he had a daughter.
Olivia Robles was born in 1967 in the Philippines. From there, her parents moved to the States when she learned that her stepfather was not really her father.
Although she was fulfilled, she wanted to know that she had a father. One day, she decided to submit a sample of her DNA to the popular website ancestry.com.
After a long time passed, Olivia lost hope that she would find her father, but a notification came to her on the site. There was a close match between her DNA and that of a woman named Diana Barnes, who happened to be Gary Barnes’ cousin.
Olivia hesitantly decided to contact Diana and tell her her story. Diana knew that Gary had been in a relationship with a girl from the Philippines, but was all this happening for real?
Olivia said: “The timeline fits together. And then Diana sent me a picture of him. My youngest son has such a resemblance to him that I thought, ‘He has to be my father.'”
Olivia decided to establish communication with Gary but felt very nervous because she did not know how he would react. Gary, who had never had children, was very happy when he found out that he had a daughter.
They did a DNA test that threw down all doubts. When she first met him, Olivia said she felt like she knew Gary for years.
The first encounter was like those in the movies. The elderly man was patiently waiting at an arrival gate to hug his daughter for the first time ever and the sight was heartwarming.
With Olivia, Gary and his wife gained a family. Now the date has three grandsons who are in the army just like him and a great-grandson. The family is very close and they talk every day on the phone and spend time together.
