“So, I turned 65 years old with no children but I turned 68 with two children and three grandchildren.”

In the early 2000’s my brother died in a farming accident and over the next couple of years, I lost my Mom and Dad.  On the way home from my father’s funeral I realized I was an orphan.  For the next 14 years I felt like I was alone.  I had no children from my marriage.

The first weekend of October 2017 I received a letter. It stated the lady who wrote the letter was my daughter.  Her husband had given her and her parents Ancestry memberships for Christmas in 2016. We connected and I met her and her parents New Years, 2016.  So, I have a daughter and grandson.  Incredible.

Last year, during the pandemic, I was watching a useless movie and became bored, so I decided to check my email.  I had a notification from 23andMe–the email said–“It seems we are inextricably linked.”  23andMe has a new function to identify relatives and we share 48.5 percent of DNA and he is my biological son.

When I was a freshman in Medical School I was invited by the Dean to participate in a new fertility clinic at UAB.  Participants in the program, both couples and donors were instructed that no one would ever know.  They did not anticipate the Human Genome project or DNA technology.  So, I turned 65 years old with no children but I turned 68 with two children and three grandchildren.  God is good and takes care of us.

Jerry Harrison, M.D.