LilMtnCbn
04-16-2004, 06:59 AM
http://icayrshire.icnetwork.co.uk/news/localnews/kilmarnock/kilmarnocknews
/tm_objectid=14152490&method=full&siteid=73592&headline=you--x2019-re-joki
ng--name_page.html
YOU’RE JOKING! Apr 16 2004
KILMARNOCK man John Gallagher is about to meet the daughter he never knew he
had — 43 years after she was born!
Aileen Mitchell will travel from her home in New Zealand to meet her
72-year-old father for the very first time.
Aileen, who is married with two grown up children, only discovered she was
adopted after she herself decided to adopt a child.
When she obtained a copy of her original birth certificate it gave her
father’s name as John Gallagher, and she then set the wheels in motion trying
to trace him.
She contacted the Edinburgh-based family tracing service through their website
www.scotsconnected.com
Company owner Margaret Drummond began the search and unearthed some useful
data, and an article in the Kilmarnock Standard appealing for information also
produced some results.
Margaret eventually tracked down John in Batley in Yorkshire, where he’s
lived for the past 14 years.
John takes up the story: “I got a letter from Margaret on April 1 and thought
it was a wind-up, but the next day at half-past-one in the morning the phone
rang and the voice said ‘Hello dad.’ It was Aileen.
“I was flabbergasted. I couldn’t hide my emotions. I was crying
non-stop.”
Since then the two have been in contact by telephone almost on a daily basis.
In one of the calls Aileen broke the news that her husband David was paying for
her to fly over to meet her dad in a few weeks.
John, who was formerly employed by Kilmarnock Town Council as a binman and
slater, stayed with Aileen’s mum from 1958 to 1960. But when they split up he
went back to live with his mother and he never knew she was pregnant.
Aileen was born at Ayrshire Central Hospital on February 14, 1961, and lived
with her adoptive parents in Saltcoats, before the family emigrated to New
Zealand when she was aged three.
Now, some 40 years later, she’s due to make a return journey of over 12,000
miles to meet her real father for the very first time.
Said John: “I can’t imagine how I’ll feel when I see her in the flesh.
It’s bound to be a very emotional occasion.”
Aileen will meet John in his Batley home before they travel north to
Kilmarnock, where she will meet a host of relatives she never knew she had
until a few weeks ago.
-------------------------
A good friend will come and bail you out of jail . . . but, a true friend will
be sitting next to you saying, "Damn . . . that was fun!"
-----Unknown
/tm_objectid=14152490&method=full&siteid=73592&headline=you--x2019-re-joki
ng--name_page.html
YOU’RE JOKING! Apr 16 2004
KILMARNOCK man John Gallagher is about to meet the daughter he never knew he
had — 43 years after she was born!
Aileen Mitchell will travel from her home in New Zealand to meet her
72-year-old father for the very first time.
Aileen, who is married with two grown up children, only discovered she was
adopted after she herself decided to adopt a child.
When she obtained a copy of her original birth certificate it gave her
father’s name as John Gallagher, and she then set the wheels in motion trying
to trace him.
She contacted the Edinburgh-based family tracing service through their website
www.scotsconnected.com
Company owner Margaret Drummond began the search and unearthed some useful
data, and an article in the Kilmarnock Standard appealing for information also
produced some results.
Margaret eventually tracked down John in Batley in Yorkshire, where he’s
lived for the past 14 years.
John takes up the story: “I got a letter from Margaret on April 1 and thought
it was a wind-up, but the next day at half-past-one in the morning the phone
rang and the voice said ‘Hello dad.’ It was Aileen.
“I was flabbergasted. I couldn’t hide my emotions. I was crying
non-stop.”
Since then the two have been in contact by telephone almost on a daily basis.
In one of the calls Aileen broke the news that her husband David was paying for
her to fly over to meet her dad in a few weeks.
John, who was formerly employed by Kilmarnock Town Council as a binman and
slater, stayed with Aileen’s mum from 1958 to 1960. But when they split up he
went back to live with his mother and he never knew she was pregnant.
Aileen was born at Ayrshire Central Hospital on February 14, 1961, and lived
with her adoptive parents in Saltcoats, before the family emigrated to New
Zealand when she was aged three.
Now, some 40 years later, she’s due to make a return journey of over 12,000
miles to meet her real father for the very first time.
Said John: “I can’t imagine how I’ll feel when I see her in the flesh.
It’s bound to be a very emotional occasion.”
Aileen will meet John in his Batley home before they travel north to
Kilmarnock, where she will meet a host of relatives she never knew she had
until a few weeks ago.
-------------------------
A good friend will come and bail you out of jail . . . but, a true friend will
be sitting next to you saying, "Damn . . . that was fun!"
-----Unknown
