Nick B’s DNA Surprise

This transcript was generated automatically. Its accuracy may vary.

Speaker 1

We have an empty chair mentally that's by the fireplace with the kettle on and a biscuit, a cookie, whatever, ready to go to whoever steps through that door.

You know, they want to embrace us.

We're here to, to, to embrace and support each other.

Yeah, it's still surreal, but I, I, you know, I've landed on that reality.

Speaker 2

Welcome to DNA Surprises, a podcast that explores the life altering world of unexpected DNA discoveries.

I'm your host, Alexis Ourselt.

This show centers the stories of people who've experienced NP, ES or non paternal events.

In other words, people who've learned that their biological father isn't who they thought he was.

We'll also hear from adoptees, donor conceived people, and the families navigating these discoveries.

Get ready to follow the incredible journeys that begin with a simple DNA test.

This is DNA surprises.

The more the merrier.

Wouldn't it be great if everyone involved in Adna Surprise had this mentality?

While that's unfortunately not always the case, this week's guest has had an incredible time connecting with the family he discovered after taking Adna Test.

Nick shares why growing up learning about his paternal side never really factored into his thinking and how Adna Test changed everything.

Thank you for sharing your story, Nick.

Hello, my name is Nick, I AM 60 and I live in a town called Temecula in Southern California, but originally I was born and raised in a seaside town called Bournemouth on the South Coast of England.

I was raised by a single parent, my mum, during my what, 27 years or so in the UK.

No brothers, no sisters, no cousins, nieces, nephews.

Now I do remember a great aunt and an uncle on my grandmother's side, on my mum's side and you know, they pop their clogs in the seven seas and I have fond memories of that.

But other than that it was just me and my mum and that was the family unit, nothing else.

So when my mum suddenly died on my birthday back in 1993, my family unit had then had suddenly just frozen.

And that was for me a moment in time where I decided it was time for me to reinvent myself.

And I had a visit from a very good old school term of mine called Steve.

God bless him, he's up in Santa Cruz and he came out, you know, why don't you come and visit, you know?

So when we went up to San Francisco for the very first time, I just fell in love with the place.

So mentally for me, I'm going to uproot, come to California, reinvent myself and start my own family, right?

So got married, beautiful wife Elizabeth, four boys later.

So we got our own family unit.

We have her family and there's just me sailing along and over the years the memories that I have of books, papers, letters, photographs.

A lot of those were in German because my mum was born in Stuttgart to German parents.

So I knew that half of the the equation.

So good oldancestry.com, I built my family tree out or half the tree, you know, as much as I I could do.

And then in December 2018, I decided, you know what, just for giggles, let me do the old swab and send in the DNA kit to Ancestry.

So I did that.

The results came back in February.

I was excited to look at my breakup.

And half of me is German and then a bit of the UK bit of Nordic this and that too.

So I thought that was interesting.

But there was no hits on my mother's side.

I mean, there was fourth cousins, 3rd cousins, 9th cousins.

And I'm thinking, yeah, that's OK.

I mean, we're all related, you know, back to Adam and Eve, you know, but so I just ignored that.

But there were two little hits, one from a guy called James in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, Australia, and then another hit of somebody by the initials Rd. and James was really close.

Rd. was not far behind and it was controlled the account by somebody called Dali in New Zealand.

So I messaged them both didn't hear back from Rd. but I heard back from James and you know James he, he wrote back, he said because he did the DNA as well.

So he said, I'm somewhat puzzled, perplexed why you and I have even more of adna connection because he also showed up Rd. on his as well.

So I shared him my half of the family tree.

He told me he had been adopted, you know, so we exchanged niceties and stuff like that.

And then eventually we just floated away and separated and say, hey, you have a nice, nice life.

And so you grew up then with a single mom.

Were you curious about your father and who that was?

Did you have any story there?

And when you took your test, were you hoping to learn more about your father's side, or were you still just wanting to dig in more on your mom's side?

Yeah, that's a brilliant question.

It was a bit awkward because my mom never spoke about my father.

She never married.

She sort of had the odd day, but nothing serious so and when I would try to ask it, I suppose I didn't.

I think I have compartmentalized that to feel like she was mother and father all wrapped into one.

There was no photographs.

I had odd pictures and I would mentally think could that be my father?

But it's interesting because she never talked about her past.

She never talked about her time growing up in Germany at that time as Hitler was coming to power.

That's another story.

But anyway, yeah.

So when she suddenly died, that just vanished.

Whatever she could tell or wanted to tell, I would never get to know.

It was always awkward, right?

At school, your schoolmates would say, hey, Nick, you know, what did your dad do in the war?

Meaning the Second World War, Right?

Or your granddad and I would just quickly sort of blush and change the subject and deflect, you know which Elizabeth says I do very well all the time today.

So when I took the test, I suppose, you know, not being really fully aware that if you're going to go down that Ave. something else is going to pop up.

But I was just thinking of my mum's side of the fence, not my father's side.

Oh boy.

Interesting.

OK.

So you and this contact that you had made, this connection sort of James sort of drifted apart over time.

What happened?

Right.

Yeah.

So on May the 11th 2023 and as my son Lincoln calls it, this is a day that will live in infamy.

We both I get a note from Darley.

Finally after what five years or so she responds back and so she says here.

Hi Nick, apologies I've only found your e-mail.

I'm Ret's mum remember Rd.

So we got Rhett.

Rhett's father was born in the UK in 1958.

You do look a lot like my son's paternal family members.

You are welcome to e-mail my son's dad, Miles.

Search him on the Internet.

You'll see what I mean about looks.

Thanks, darling.

And then I'm thinking, what?

Hello.

You know, McFly, You know anybody there?

And I'm just frozen in time thinking so something.

OK, well, let me look him up.

I see his photographs of him and I'm thinking, I'm looking at myself, you know, I think this is weird.

And then I get a message from James is that I just heard from Dolly.

We're brothers because in those days, ancestry never said half siblings or brothers.

He said close in those days.

And I'm thinking, suddenly, I've got two brothers I never knew existed in my life.

So I messaged Miles, you know, in New Zealand because, you know, that's where he emigrated to back in the 80s.

And we hopped on a WhatsApp call.

And then he just told me everything.

And he began with, oh, by the way, I have a sister called Amanda, a sister called Fiona, and also a brother called Jeremy from, I'm thinking, what?

Wait a minute.

So suddenly now from zero siblings, now I'm like up to six.

And they said, oh, by the way, we also know of a brother Bill and a sister Vicky who live in Marshfield, WI.

I'm thinking what?

Oh, and by the way, there is a brother Lawrence in Bath in the UK as well.

And I'm thinking.

You're just adding them all up.

You go from no siblings to how many after you talk to Miles.

So let's say so.

We've got James, Miles, Amanda, Fiona, Jeremy, Vicky, Bill and Lawrence.

So that's suddenly from zero to 8.

Wow.

A day that lives in infamy, but in a great way, You know, opposite day.

What, what, how are you feeling like?

Because now you've this is surfacing something you've not really thought about, which is your father, but you find out that through your father you have eight siblings.

What are you thinking at this point?

I suppose the common denominator, or the the the thread into the tapestry is our Father who art in heaven, as Jeremy always calls it, too.

So the part of the surprise is that, oh, by the way, your biological father, he's an American.

I said what he said.

His name is also Bill, Bill Junior.

And he was born in Chicago in 1935.

And when he was 15 years of age, he signed up and got Granny grandma to fudge his sign up papers because he went off to fighting the Korean War.

So you can imagine he wears the sailor suit.

And I tell you what I mean, He's a he's, he's handsome.

I mean, I can see why people would get to look at him more than once or twice.

You know, he's was really a good looking chat.

But he was very smart.

He was a chess champion.

He loved the theatre, movies.

Apparently he is a character that I never got to know or knew.

He actually passed away in 2008 in England.

So, so I'm digesting that and at the same time I'm thinking, damn it, I just spent a couple of 1000 getting a green card, you know, because I married, you know, made my life here, became a citizen in 2021.

I could have had a shortcut, you know, to father.

So with lots of emotion and I'm still digesting it today, you know?

Absolutely, absolutely.

OK, so wow, so you talk to Miles, you get all of this information.

What?

What do you do with it or what happens next?

Jeremy, Fiona and Amanda, they live in the UK.

Jeremy sends us a video, me and James and he says he says well Nick and James, it's an odd 1 isn't it?

It's not everyday that you find that you've got 17,000 bloody relatives in the world because when they hear about me and James in Australia they're just tickled pink.

They're just so happy and amazed and they just embrace us.

It was so natural when we picked up the phone and did the video to make that first conversation.

We just clicked like that.

It was really heartwarming and very, very emotional.

Were any of you raised by Bill?

So Bill was one of those guys that floated in and out of their lives.

So he floated in to their mothers and their lives.

Then he left, as Miles would say, when he was very young.

And then he went and started a family and met Bill and Vicky's mum in Chicago.

And so there was that threat.

But he was very much, I think, absent to the most degree.

He just liked to travel, you know, and, and.

Yeah, I, I was curious, you know, with his military background and seeming like he traveled, if these were sort of a series of, of children, you know, that he that he had, or if, if he was involved with any of the mothers, you know, unlike your situation.

So, OK, so some of them did know who their father was, even if he wasn't around.

And that's probably how you got a lot of answers to who he was and what he did.

Yeah, yeah, there's a couple of things here.

But he was televised in 1971 on NBC News Live during the very first exorcism of a house in Chicago by the I think it's the the Becker family.

And he was the Reverend Dill.

I can't.

He was the the Reverend William and there he is.

And you can actually see it on YouTube and people follow this the, the, the, you know, the paranormal that this, this was two years before the movie The exorcism.

And there he is, you know, his big old moppy hair and he's wearing the, the, the cloth and he's splashing holy water all over the place.

So that's my first view of actually seeing him.

So there was.

Been done before but dad got in and was was recorded live so he he became quite famous.

Take me maybe through Bill's life.

So he joins he joins the military when he's just 15.

He fights in in the Korean War.

He obviously meets women throughout his life and has children.

He then goes on to be a priest or a yeah what happened?

Yeah, right.

I mean, yeah.

So that's interesting.

What we do know is that he travelled, right.

So Korea, of course.

So we think we have siblings out there.

He was also spent time in Japan, so we think we have some things there.

And apparently he was also in Fiji.

And apparently the story goes that he had actually met one of the chief's daughters and got her, you know, in a condition.

And apparently the chief was demanding that he, the Navy hand him over.

And they said no.

And they shipped him out, You know, so it sounds like that was definitely one for the lady.

But he also loved theatre, you know, and a lot of plays.

He was heavily involved in the Chicago scene in theatre and then he also travelled to England and also to Bournemouth, at which I actually have a copy of his old passport in 1964, whereby he would have to go to the police station at Bournemouth to extend his visa.

And he was involved in the theatre.

So I know that's how he bumped into my mother or as I call it, an encounter, you know, or two.

So I have to giggle a bit because I laugh it off.

If I was younger, I may have had a hard time to try to digest this.

But now that I'm 60, it was some battle scars, you know, it's just, yeah, OK, well, what a, you know.

So we do giggle amongst ourselves about him and his his character.

Yeah, he sounds like a really interesting guy.

So if I take the handbrake off and let's keep going down the road a bit further.

So I'm on my way to Paris with the family.

We're doing a European trip for the summer.

And then I get a message from James.

He says, hi Nick.

Great that you had.

It's great that to see that you've arrived safely in Europe.

Have you checked your ancestry DNA?

You will have a biog surprise.

We have another brother.

I had an hour long conversation with him.

His name is Ralph.

So I'm reading this in my hotel room in Paris and I'm thinking, oh, my giddy aunt.

And then he says, get this.

He says he only got.

So he only got his results yesterday.

On that day, his birth mother was my birth mother's best friend.

Oh wow.

In Australia, because he was a technician at a hospital, so obviously he was rubbing shoulders with the nurses and other things.

And the odd thing is Ralphie only lived 30 miles away from James, so they were both given up for adoption.

He was born in New Zealand.

His mum obviously, as she was starting to show, realized I've got to go to New Zealand and just disappear for a couple of weeks, months, whatever.

So he's born in New Zealand, but he makes his way over and he's living 13 miles and they had no idea.

Another sibling.

What are you thinking as this pops up?

I mean, it sounds like you had a lot of excitement around it.

Were there any other emotions that come up for you?

I suppose it's just another hello.

There's a stunned, numbing feeling, but then a sense of joy in the sense of, well, my family, who I thought was now zilch, except, of course, Elizabeth and my boys.

That was my family now.

I felt like now, you know, coming, not different brothers and sisters, but now you've got nieces and nephews.

So suddenly Uncle Nick is up on deck.

You know, it was a lot of excitement and joy too.

We were all shaking our heads, all of us on a WhatsApp family chat because we share videos, we hop on, we spit ball and just talk about the past and stuff like that.

What are your children?

Your your sons Think of this, and your wife.

Elizabeth and the boys, you know, their jaws just dropped.

They were both tickled pinks.

And now they've got actual uncles and aunts, too.

I mean, I know they have uncles and aunts on Elizabeth's stibling side of the house.

But now for me to be able to now share them with, you know, my half of the family is really wonderful.

So what we all decided to do?

Why don't we all fly together to the United Kingdom, have a huge marquee tent in the little village in Somerset where Fiona and Amanda are, and we will call it the Gathering, not the reunion.

Because for us there is no reunion.

It's the gathering.

And we tagged it the Lost Boys and girls because I think, you know, with father coming in and out of their lives and whatever he was doing for us, this was our joy and our journey together.

So we did.

But the the story hasn't ended because there's another surprise.

This was on December the 15th, 2023.

So 2023 was the year where everything just unfolded, right?

We got a message from our sister, Fiona.

And she says, and she says here, welcome to the family, Nicole.

Love your sister Fiona.

And I'm thinking, welcome to the family.

So she's obviously invited this lady called Nicole into the family.

Anyway, she is another sister who is an American, but she lives in Singapore.

So she suddenly fell out so suddenly.

Now I'm up to ten siblings.

And that's when we talked about doing the gathering.

So we told her about our plans and she said I'd love to join you guys too.

So yeah.

So we all flew in from different parts of the planet. the US, Australia, Singapore, Timbuktu.

I don't know.

Truly, everywhere.

So you all flew to England.

Yes, and the very first person I met to give a hug was Jeremy and he's meeting me at that entrance, which you see in the movies, the holiday at Christmas, you know, where everybody and there we and we have this big embrace, this huge hug where like 50-6 years of being an only child to suddenly now being able to get my arms around 1 of my brothers was really emotional for us.

And then because some had landed at Heathrow, I then met my sister at Waterloo station.

The call from Singapore gave her an emotional a hug.

And then we, they went to the British Museum where James was there too with his wife as well.

So he and I started that journey six years before.

Have that embrace before the gatherings.

Are you seeing yourself in your siblings?

Because that's something to hear about.

And especially I'm curious, you know, how that felt for you because you didn't grow up with a lot of family.

So to actually see maybe similarities like what was that like?

Picture this So we're on a tube, a subway as we call it, right?

A tube in London and we just hooked up with Jeremy at Teddington and we're driving into Waterloo station riding in and there's him and I just chatting away and there's Elizabeth and Jake with Luke and Lincoln and they're all giving each other side eye because they're looking at us.

And we're all, you know, the hair because we all have the moppy hair.

We've got the same mannerisms, you know, the same sense of humour.

So it was just so uncanny.

So yeah, you know, the mannerisms, the humor, the music.

We of course have different soccer teams that we.

I'm a Cherry supporter from the Cherries from Bournemouth.

Miles is West Ham not and Jeremy is Norwich.

So there's that rivalry.

At least we can bat heads.

Sure, on a Saturday.

So you had this gathering and when, what year was that?

That was 2024, and so there was nine of us total.

So there is another sibling like I mentioned, Lawrence, and we are very respectful because some of it could be hard to swallow or accept, you know, because I think he spent the most of his life with father up to his death too.

So we always have a door open for him if and when he's ready to say, because there'll always be a open arms to embrace him too.

And Miles unfortunately couldn't make, I mean, it's a bloody long way New Zealand to England.

I mean fly to the moon.

But still a good amount of you were able to get together.

Yes, yeah, it was brilliant.

Do you have any open questions still?

Like if you could ask your mom or you could ask Bill anything, what would you want to know?

I suppose how they met for that brief moment in time, there's so much like I wish I could ask my mum, especially about her time growing up in Germany too.

For my father, the way that I hear the stories, I feel like I dodged the bullet in the sense that if I had that Tasmanian whirlwind blowing in and out, I'm sure there's a beautiful side to him, but there's definitely a whirlwind to him.

I think I would have gone sideways.

I don't think it would have done me any favour.

So I, I feel like I'm, I'm, I'm glad I missed that one, to be honest, which is strange.

It for us, it was for all of us together, the Lost boys and girls, you know, the Peter Pan sort of thing where we could relive to being young again.

And what did you like to listen to growing up?

What do you like?

What don't you like?

What did you eat?

What were the favorite things that you used to do?

How has connecting with your siblings and learning more about where you came from and these other people who share DNA with you changed your perception of yourself?

Or has it?

That is also another brilliant question because I consider myself English, right?

But now I'm American because I've spent more my life here than I have in the UK.

And I've raised, you know, my career.

My family is built on American soil, and I just love this country so much.

But now with the DNA of my father being American, So I thought, OK, well, that takes off a huge box.

So I feel that on both sides of the fence.

But then there's also another DNA surprise on the German side as well.

So I have this Schwebian part of me that is now coming into my life, too.

So sometimes I'm thinking, well, where do I land the plane?

German, English or American?

And I feel like my plane lands on American soil, but my heart still is on the English side because that makes my personality and who I am.

I'm bilingual, I suppose, in American English and English, English humor and how we operate, how we don't operate it's but you're right.

It it it swirls like a lava lamp.

Well, and I imagine it's it's changed your perception of yourself as an only child without much family.

Like do you still feel at all like an only child or do you feel?

Like.

You've got siblings, yeah.

Yeah, I felt like, yeah.

And if my mum was alive today, I think that would have been like, oh, oh, you know, I can see her just howling, not with laughter, but oh, my, oh, boy, you know.

Oh, that William, when I bumped into him in Bournemouth, you know, it's wonderful.

No, I've now, now I feel like now I, I, I belong, you know, And we've got places to bloody visit now.

Where do we go?

If it's Germany, got to go to Wisconsin.

We've got to go and visit to those good folks, wise visit my sister who's now actually moved to Thailand, Bangkok for work too.

If we're going to go and visit her, we're going to go to Australia next year to meet with James and Ralphie and the family too.

I've got nephews in in Colombia, Bogota, Yeah, we're all over the bloody place.

Have there been any challenges in trying to get to know and connect or how do you overcome it?

No.

SO for us, what has really been a blessing for us is WhatsApp because we can.

Sometimes for giggles, I'll just hit the whole group and we'll pop up, you know, or we'll send videos of my son's getting their driver's license or us on a carousel wheel in Normandy thinking the guy's left us at the top and he's buggered off.

You know, he's left us on on this Normandy beach.

Where the hell is he?

You know, we, we can interact in real time, being mindful of the time zone.

So I don't want to wake up Nicole at 2:00 in the morning when it's maybe, you know, 11:00 in the morning in California.

But yeah, so we keep it really tight and then we'll talk individually together because you want that closeness as well.

And I also do that with my German side of the family as well that I've discovered too.

So I feel like we've got these bonds that keep us together, and you've got to want it because it's so easy.

I know siblings can say, oh, yeah, you know, I'm in Tallahassee and I'm in Nairobi.

Give us a call.

And they never do.

And the only time you meet each other is when you're putting somebody in the ground.

That's the only time that and that's so sad or family bickering your siblings that, you know, just suddenly turn their backs to one another.

I think what a shame depending of course the reasons why, but.

Of course, yeah.

But yeah, so WhatsApp has really kept us tight.

What's in the future?

Like when are you are you?

Do you have another Lost Boys and Girls?

Reunion, yes.

So the Handbrake is on at the moment, but we honestly believe that there's going to be others that are out there.

We truly believe that.

And we're thinking about maybe, maybe reaching out.

There's a Korean society that does DNA to match with folks because of course, a lot of GIS were heading out that way and Brits and other folks too that joined that fight and had kids out there and then just took off.

So we think there could be somebody there, but everyday we're all watching ancestry.com to see if we get another hit.

That is so interesting to kind of just know to have this knowing and acceptance, but also like excitement about who you're going to uncover.

Honestly, I have to tell you, Nick, I'm really impressed at how you've been able to forge these relationships with so many people and keep keep tabs on them because you know, you have, I imagine, a full life.

You have a family, you're, you have a wife, you have a career.

And but, but like you said, you've you've prioritized it because you want it.

Absolutely.

Lutely.

For me, it's an embrace of something that has been hidden from me for 56 years.

That's a bloody long time where you go through life as an only child, just sailing along, you know, in your own canoe and then building my own canoe for my own family.

So it's.

Yeah, it's it's it's beautiful.

Embrace it, embrace it and don't be shy because before you know it I'll pop my clogs and game over.

So I want to live every day of it.

Has has there been any grief for you around the fact that these people have existed, you know, and, and you didn't know them?

Yeah, you know what, it's interesting.

So I'll give you an example.

I was driving in a country lane in Somerset after the gathering and there's my two sisters, Fiona and Amanda in their own cars and I'm following them with my kids in the back.

And then for a moment in time, you know, country lanes, there's only maybe one lane wide enough for a cow to go through doing 60, you know, because they've got the privet hedges that you can't see over.

And this sudden, this warmth went through me thinking I could picture myself as a teenager as I just got my life and I'm driving and I'm following my sisters through the English countryside.

I could, I could picture that.

And that just had this warmth flow through me saying I'm doing this now, but I could go back in time and following my sisters through these narrow lanes.

That's how much it's affected me that I've just embraced them all and vice versa, you know?

No short stabbing knives, all his neck.

I'll quit hide.

Oh, we want a pain in the backside.

Oh, it's *** gang up.

We get rid of him.

So.

But all that gave me goosebumps and and I was really touched too by the way you describe it as the Lost boys and girls because you're all getting together and kind of almost time travelling together and and getting that connection and talking about what you were like when you were young and kind of experiencing all of it.

That is just so cool.

It, it, is it, it?

Fiona had mentioned to me that when they were kids growing up, when father was wherever he was, they would dream of being like the Lost Boys and Girls, where they could just fly through that window, have somebody take them away, where they can just go and play all day.

So that's why we thought we'd call it the Lost Boys and Girls.

And we actually made a little pub called The Hook and Feather Pub just outside the marquee tents, you know, that as a play on words for Captain Hook and Peter Pan for the Feather, you know, Yeah, it's something to behold for sure.

And I treasure every moment of it then and now.

So mentally, my mind keeps going back into the past, into the present and the into the future.

It's constantly moving in a good way, in a positive way, too.

Yeah, I did have another DNA surprise last year, which was not on my father's side, but actually on my mother's side, where I found nothing on the DNAI had a message that came from a a cousin of mine who I never knew existed, so I can share it with you.

And it was from Garvey.

She's a cousin in the Heil Brom and she had reached out to me and she says, do you happen to be the Nick?

Oh, Paul.

So I used to go by my middle name, Paul.

So she was looking for this Paul in England doing the DNA because she has a granddaughter now.

She wanted to build her family tree and she knew that her great grandfather had a brother, which is my granddad.

And she had reached out to me.

But she did the DNA and we got a hit and she weeps out and said, do you happen to be that poor?

And I said yeah, she had a photograph of me as a child, as a like 2 years of age, which I actually have on my desk, that same photo that was in her great grandfather's album and she was looking for me.

So I flew out with my eldest son to meet my mum's side of the family and that was another magical experience.

What an amazing way to connect.

You've connected now with both sides of your lineage through DNA testing.

What a fascinating story.

And just so many of you, but also to have the positive outcome like that's.

Yeah, that's the extra special part of it, is that there's so many of you and you've been able to forge a relationship with each other and that is rare and special.

Yeah, yeah, there's nothing to hide.

There's no embarrassment.

There's nobody saying didn't they always don't you know, you know, don't look at me.

I, you know, wrong number.

Block my, you know, block your number.

No, we we're all getting to to sort of know each other and they're all healthy touch wood, you know, So we've got some year legs on us, some tread on the tires to bond and forge our relationships and visit each other.

What advice do you have for a parent who might be keeping a DNA surprise from their child?

That is an interesting question because I feel like just ask the question.

You've taking it to the grave and then finding out through DNA and then making your own assumptions, which will not be the, the correct or the complete picture, You know, even if it sounds painful or difficult, you've got to, you know, you've, you've, you've got to know.

I feel like you have a right to know.

But if you don't ask, you don't get.

And if it's not the right time, then ask again, but at another moment in time where you think it is better, rather than on somebody's deathbed.

Do it.

Do it now, while you can, while the memories are still there.

Or maybe you can plop them out like a pensive overtime where parents say, oh, hang on a second, I remember this too, you know?

And what advice do you have for someone like yourself who just uncovered Adna surprise?

Enjoy it, don't block it, you know, embrace.

We're not on this planet for very long and you will have regrets, especially if you're not the one that pops your clocks first.

But folks that you, you know, we need more love in the world today.

And I feel like there's so much anger and people just blocking each other and not talking to one another.

Forget the pettiness because at the end of the day, we're good people.

You know, you've got good hearts and don't let it, don't lose it.

Don't let it go.

Yeah, that's beautiful.

That's beautiful.

Nick, thank you so much for joining me today and telling your remarkable story.

It's, you know, there are so many different outcomes to these stories it but it's really nice to hear of just something so positive and the amazing connections that you've made in your just overall outlook.

Please keep me posted on the next Lost Boys and Girls reunion and.

You know, if anybody else pops up, I'm glad that they have, you know, a really soft place to land.

So thank you.

Absolutely they do They do.

Thank you, Alexis.

It's been a real treat and a pleasure to share this story because I know the family are chomping at the bit to listen to the podcast and all our friends as well.

They think it's a dotty ride.

Thanks again to Nick for sharing his story.

If you have adna surprise that you'd like to share, please submit your story at dnasurprises.com and for early ad free access to episodes, join me over on patreon@patreon.com/DNA Surprises.

Until next time, DNA Surprises is hosted, produced and edited by me, Alexis Oursalt.

It is mixed and mastered by Josh Oursalt of Siren Recording Studios.