After Years of Searching, Woman Finds Dad in Nursing Home Where She Works – Story of the Day

When Alina was 18, she learned about her adoption and decided to track down her bio parents. Unfortunately, she had no idea where to start since she knew nothing about them. But she continued to look for them despite years of no success, and one day, she met a man at a nursing home who told her all she'd ever wanted to know.

It was a bright sunny morning, and despite the dark bags under her eyes, Alina wore a pleasant smile as she walked into the premises of Greenwood Care Home.

"Good day, Nurse Alina," the receptionist said with a smile. "You're early again!"

"Yeah, I had some things to take care of, so I decided to leave home early this morning," Alina explained. "How are my friends doing today?"

"Your friends are doing amazing," said the receptionist with a smile, "except, well, Eddie… his surgery needs to be scheduled soon, and he still has to take a few tests before it."

"I'll take care of it," replied Alina. "Have his other reports arrived?"

"Yes, give me a moment."

Alina checked the reports, thanked the receptionist, and off she went to meet her 'friends.'

Alina was the best caregiver at the nursing home, and all the staff members and residents agreed with that. She treated the residents as if they were her friends and the staff like her family.

The love you give to others comes back to you in surprising ways.

Alina was only 18 when she decided to do something to help others, especially the helpless and needy who didn't have anyone in this world. She hadn't given it much thought before, but her 18th birthday made her realize how important it was.

"Mom, Dad, really? Like, why didn't you tell me anything until now?" asked Alina when her parents revealed the truth about her adoption.

"We're sorry, sweetie," her mother said. "We just wanted to wait until you were old enough to understand everything."

"What about my birth parents?" she asked. "Are they alive? Did they give me up because they didn't want to look after me?"

"We have no clue, Alina," her father replied. "Those people didn't tell us anything about your parents. Honestly, we were, in a way, hesitant to adopt you because we wanted to know something about your background. But we fell in love with you. Your mother just knew you would be our baby, and we took you in. We'd even pressed them about your parents' information because we knew you'd like to meet them someday."

"I do…" whispered Alina. "Look, Mom, Dad, don't get me wrong, okay? But I really want to find them! I still love you both as much as I did before, but they are my biological parents!"

"We don't mind at all, sweetie," her mother had said. "But how will you do it? We don't know anything about them."

"I don't know, Mom," Alina had replied. "But something will work out for sure. I won't stop until I've found them."

Twelve years had passed since that day, but Alina didn't give up. Those dark bags under her eyes were the result of her spending hours every night on her computer, trying to figure out a new way to find her birth parents.

First of all, she contacted the shelter where her parents had adopted her. When that didn't yield any results, she looked into ancestry DNA testing and even sent samples for it, but no luck. Then she tried social media, but that didn't help much either.

Several bowls of ramen and three big mugs of coffee was how Alina stayed awake every night, reading blogs about how people had tracked their parents. She had read several stories online where people had reunited with their parents in different countries, which worried her more.

"How will I find them if they aren't in this country?" she wondered at times. "Did they really abandon me? Are they... no longer alive?"

Alina had a lot of questions but no one to turn to for answers. Little did she know she would find the answers one day at the nursing home where she worked.

***

After collecting Eddie's report, Alina went straight to his room. "Oh, you're here!" The older man smiled. "You didn't sleep again last night, did you?"

"I don't know how you guess that every time, Eddie," she said, drawing the drapes in his room to let the sunlight in. "Your reports have arrived, and everything looks good! We can schedule your surgery sooner!"

"What's the point of it all, darling?" asked Eddie sadly. "You should just let this old man go to the Lord's home!"

"Let go?" asked Alina. "No! We're best friends, Eddie! How could you be so selfish?"

He sighed and shook his head. "Let's get you ready soon, and we have to take other tests," Alina told him.

"How many years have we known each other for, Alina?" he asked suddenly. "Many, I suppose. Do you really believe all of this is necessary, darling? I don't have any family. I was raised in a shelter and never married or had children. What is the point of it all?"

"Not everything needs a reason, Eddie," Alina said. "And besides, I am here for you! You just said we've known each other for years! That makes us family!"

Alina knew Eddie felt very lonely and detached from everything as he was getting older. She recalled how his neighbor had admitted him to the nursing home and how he hadn't had a single visitor in years. As a result, she took the most care of him at the nursing home, and she was also the closest to him.

But Eddie seemed too sad lately. The fact that he didn't have any visitors bothered Alina, and she thought maybe he did have unknown relatives somewhere in a strange corner of the world—like her bio parents, whom she hadn't been able to track down—so she secretly sent his samples for ancestry DNA testing to the same company where she had taken the test.

She could very well be fired for trying to do this, but she decided that even a sliver of happiness on Eddie's face was worth the risk.

When the test results arrived, Alina felt like her heart had stopped beating. She looked at the report and cried. Cried for hours.

"This has to be a dream!" she told herself in tears. "Eddie? Of all people, Eddie is the one I've been looking for all this while? He's my father?"

As hard as it was to believe, Alina's heart was relieved that she had finally solved the mystery of her birth father at least.

The next morning, she walked into Eddie's room with the report and tears in her eyes.

"And you're here again!" he said with a laugh. "Alina, would you like to play chess with me today? Hasn't it been a while?"

Alina couldn't hold back her tears and hugged him. "Are you sure you never had a family, Eddie?" she asked. "Never?"

"What's the matter with you today?" he asked, confused. "Oh! Darling, you're crying!"

"I'm your biological daughter, Eddie! Yes, I am!" said Alina.

"You are, what?"

"Take a look at this..."

Alina showed him the reports and told him why she had sent his samples for testing.

"I just wanted to help you find your relatives, and I had no idea I'd come across this! I've been looking for you for more than 12 years, Eddie!"

"Oh, but this…" The older man's hands were trembling, and tears rose in his eyes. "I had no idea you were… But you… I knew you reminded me of someone. I never knew she had a daughter. She didn't tell me about you, Alina! She didn't."

"So you know my mother, don't you?" Alina asked.

"There was only one woman I ever loved with all my heart, honey," Eddie began. "I believe we were in high school back then. Her name was Rose. We were both madly in love and had made many promises to one another. We broke up when she had to move to another state for college, but she never told me she was pregnant. I moved on with my life as well, but I couldn't love anyone as much as I loved her, and I never married or had children."

"So Rose abandoned me? I need to find her and ask why."

"She moved on with her life, Alina," Eddie revealed. "I decided to contact her once, but she was already married. She had two children and must be swimming in grandchildren right now."

"I still need to know…" said Alina to herself. "I need to find out why she gave me up. Why did she have me when she didn't want to raise me?"

"I need your help," Alina said to Eddie. "I just need to meet Rose once and ask her about all this. Please. Will you help me... Dad? Once we are done with everything, I'll take you home! You don't need to stay here! I was 18 when Mom and Dad told me I was adopted. They wanted to meet my birth parents too, and I know they'd love to meet you."

"I still can't believe this is happening," Eddie said. "But I will help you however I can, Alina. I'm happy… Suddenly, this old man wants to live a long life. I want to live with my daughter!"

Eddie and Alina decided to search for Rose together. Eddie knew how she looked, so they started looking for her on Facebook, and there she was… A lovely lady with the same eyes as Alina!

When Alina messaged her, she didn't know she would receive a reply almost instantly. But the reply, in a way, made Alina sad. It said:

"I'm sorry for what happened, Alina! Please don't contact me in the future. It's been years since I last saw you. It was a teenage pregnancy, and I was young. I never wanted to keep you, but terminating the pregnancy was risky, so I had you and placed you in a shelter.

I didn't want to be connected with you in any way, and I've never resented what I did. Please forget about me and move on with your life. I never told your father about you either because I knew if I did, you would somehow find me. I didn't want that.

I am happy with my life, and I hope you're happy too. I hope we don't contact each other again! Goodbye! I hope you live a happy life. All the best!"

Alina was in tears as she read out Rose's reply to Eddie.

"She really didn't want me," she sobbed. "I guess I shouldn't have contacted her."

"No," Eddie comforted her. "You made the right decision, Alina. You now understand why God chose to separate you from her. Finally, you had a loving home and wonderful parents who loved and raised you. Do you believe any of this would have happened if Rose hadn't abandoned you? In some ways, you should be thankful it happened."

"Maybe," Alina said. It still hurt her that her birth mother had abandoned her, but she chose to focus on the positives and be grateful that she had finally met her biological father, who adored and wanted her very much.

So, in the end, all of Alina's bowls of ramen noodles, big mugs of coffee, sleepless nights, and love and care for her most lonely resident paid off, and she finally found her birth father.

"Love," Eddie said as she drove him to his new and real home—the house where her parents lived—after his successful surgery. "Love is what makes a family, Alina. Your adoptive parents loved you, and you loved me as my caregiver... That is what brought us together today. Always remember that the love you give someone returns in unexpected ways. It was that love and care that helped us find each other."

What can we learn from this story?

• Never keep the truth from your loved ones, especially if it involves not only your fate but also the fate of others. If Alina's parents had not told her the truth, Eddie would have died a sad, lonely life and never been able to unite with his daughter.
• The love you give to others comes back to you in surprising ways. Alina gave her all to her nursing home residents, and that love returned to her in the form of more love—it connected her to Eddie.

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If you enjoyed this story, you might like this one about an older woman who doesn't receive any visitors in her nursing home until her relatives learn about her unexpected $2.3 million fortune.

This piece is inspired by stories from the everyday lives of our readers and written by a professional writer. Any resemblance to actual names or locations is purely coincidental. All images are for illustration purposes only. Share your story with us; maybe it will change someone's life. If you would like to share your story, please send it to info@amomama.com.