A U.S. Marine Corps veteran united with his long-lost daughter, her children and grandchildren Sunday after over 60 years of separation.
Thomas Williams, 81, finally met his 62-year-old daughter, Tylin Rosser, over the 4th of July weekend. The veteran knew that he had fathered a baby while stationed in Phillipines, but did not know how to find the child, according to CBS News.
Marine vet dad and daughter meet after more than 60 years following DNA site link-up https://t.co/i37g8zsNAK
— CBS News (@CBSNews) July 5, 2021
“I think about you all the time. I always did,” Williams said, embracing Rosser for the first time at a 4th of July dinner, for which his American-born children brought Rosser’s family over from their home in Ohio to Alabama, WHNT-TV reported.
“A friend of mine in the Marines showed me a picture and I didn’t know whether it was a little girl or boy because it was so small, and he said ‘this is your baby,” Williams said. (RELATED: Mom Reportedly Reunites With Smuggled Daughter After Seeing Her Alone On TV After Crossing Border)
He has always been frank with his children about the fact that they had a half-sibling, CBS reported.
“I told you about Tylin years ago!” he said to his other daughter, Dana Williams.
Rosser said she was shocked to learn that the man she had grown up with was not her biological father. It was only after the death of her step-father that she found out about the decades-long secret, but her mother who suffered from dementia could not give much information about Williams.
“All she could remember was just, ‘William,’” she added, according to CBS.
Rosser’s daughter gifted her a DNA test whose results led to the long-awaited meeting between the dad and the daughter, WHNT-TV reported.
“I got some information maybe about 6 weeks later saying Carla Minor Williams was a cousin or close relative,” Rosser said, according to WHNT-TV. “I said that must be the ‘William’ my mom was always saying.”
“God answers prayers,” Williams said, as he embraced his daughter.