FROME provided the back-drop to a heart-warming story about a father and son being reunited after more than 46 years apart, which featured in a recent episode of ITV’s Long Lost Family.
Andy Nichol, who now lives in Walsall, was reunited with his son John Mundy, who was given up for adoption soon after his birth in 1970. The father and son met for the first time in the Frome area, where Andy met John’s mother Brenda in the 1960s.
“Just for him to walk in and call him my son… best day of my life without a doubt,” said Andy.
Andy was working in Frome in the 1960s when he met John’s mother, Brenda. The pair were two years into their relationship when Brenda discovered she was pregnant.
When Brenda’s parents found out about the pregnancy, they hoped Andy would marry Brenda but he wasn’t free to marry as he was still in the process of a divorce. Soon after, Brenda broke off all contact with Andy.
After hearing Brenda had given birth, Andy went straight to the Bath Royal United Hospital to see the baby, but he was not allowed into the ward.
Andy managed to catch a glimpse of his baby son wrapped up, with his red hair sticking out, but afterwards Andy never saw his son again and against his wishes, John was put up for adoption.
“I felt so helpless… saddest day of my life without a doubt,” said Andy.
Long Lost Family used a specialist intermediary to search for John and they discovered that he was still called John and had grown up in Weston-Super-Mare.
After 2013, the programme could not find any record of him living in the UK, but after extensive searching, they tracked him down, living on the other side of the world in Australia.
When John was told that his father was looking for him he said he was gobsmacked. “Just knowing that he wanted to be a father makes a big difference,” he said.
Since reuniting, Andy and John speak every week and John is planning his next trip back to the UK to see his father again.
