Former Navy seaman, Jeff Neal, met his daughter, Nikky Wilcher, a child he never knew he had, and, she’s a marine. He also met his granddaughter and son-in-law.
“To meet her and hold her and hug her for the first time, there’s no words to describe it,” Neal said.
It was Wilcher’s tireless search on DNA sites and social media that led her to call Neal’s aunt in the Worcester area.
“‘Was anybody in your family stationed in Hawaii in the mid-80s.’ She said, ‘Uh, yeah, why,'” Neal said.
Neal was on a naval ship and had a “weekend fling” as he calls it. He had not idea he fathered a child 32 years ago.
“Holy cow, I could have another child I never knew about,” Neal said.
“All kinds of memories going through my head about this girl who all through her life without a father. That just hurts,” Neal said.
Wilcher is stationed in California and spoke via Facetime.
“Since the age of 9, it became something that was a known void for me,” she said. “It was something that I felt overwhelmingly.”
And Then they had that awkward first phone call.
“He made the conversation very welcoming and very comfortable,” Wilcher said.
“You can never have too much family,” Neal said. “That’s the way I see it. Family is what life is all about.”
And now this military family is complete.
“Now I have been blessed with an entire new family I get to know and appreciate,” Wilcher said.
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