It was nearly 30 years ago when Billy learned that his ex-girlfriend was pregnant with his child. The two had already broken up, but Billy stepped up to do as much as he could to support her and the baby.
As a single man who didn’t have custody, Billy’s deep desire to be involved in his daughter’s life proved to be more complicated than he ever imagined. “Once Allie was born, the state of Texas said that if I paid child support, I would get to have supervised visits. I took anything I could get to see her,” Billy remembered.
A relationship cut short
For the first two years of Allie’s life, Billy cherished the limited time he got to spend with her on the weekends. But as time went on, Billy said that Allie’s mother started canceling their visits at the last minute or not showing up at all. Billy continued to show up and pay child support, feeling helpless that he had no control over the situation.
During a period when Billy had not seen Allie for over a month, he received a letter in the mail from the state of California requesting child support, a transfer from his home state of Texas. This was how he learned his daughter had been moved out of state.
“Allie’s mother didn’t want me to have anything to do with my daughter,” Billy said. He tried searching for Allie to the best of his ability, but limited finances and a busy job doing autobody work in Texas prevented Billy from traveling. As the years passed, he tried to come to terms with the fact that he would never see his daughter again.
The call that changed everything
Years later, Billy received a phone call out of the blue. The young woman on the phone begged Billy to hear her out, as she believed she was his long-lost daughter. It was Allie, who had just turned 18. She had searched online for Billy with the little information she had and reached out to a few people who helped her locate him.
“My mom never gave me much information on him,” Allie explained. “She said it was too late, and I was old, and he had a new family and he didn’t want anything to do with me. I found out that was absolutely not true.”
Since that phone call 10 years ago, Billy has lived in Texas and Allie in Nevada. Their relationship has grown close via text, phone, and video calls. Allie sends photos of her three kids—ages 6, 3, and 1—and shares about their activities and achievements. Billy and his wife Sue, to whom he has been married for 17 years, never miss a call on holidays and birthdays.
“Allie is not my flesh and blood, but I feel like she is my daughter,” Sue said. When Allie was in labor with her first child six years ago, Sue stayed on the phone with Allie all night long.
“They have been absolutely wonderful since they came into our lives,” said Allie, who lost her biological mom three years ago. “It’s hard being so far away from them.”
Billy and Allie dreamed of reuniting in person, but the reality of making this happen was complicated. Billy’s wife, Sue, has multiple gastrointestinal diseases that have required frequent hospital visits over the years, consuming much of the couple’s income for hospital bills and medication. Newly married, working, and raising three young children, Allie also did not have the resources to make the trip.
“It would be one of the high points of my life for us to get to meet my daughter and my grandkids,” Billy said. “The first thing I would do is give them a big hug. Other than that, just sitting in the living room, talking and getting to know them better would be amazing.”
A long-overdue reunion
With help from Wish of a Lifetime from AARP, Billy got to see Allie in person for the first time since she was two years old. Sue accompanied him on a flight to Nevada where they enjoyed a weekend with Allie, her husband, and three children. This marked the first and only time Billy had seen his grandkids. They enjoyed dinners out together, got to cook some meals with the grandchildren, and spent long overdue hours catching up with one another.
“It was very emotional for Billy, but in the best way possible,” Sue recalled. “I haven’t seen him smile that much in years. Seeing the two of them connect like they did was so special. Allie has never been able to ask him so many questions. We learned a lot about her that we had no idea about.”
For both Billy and Allie, the reunion was a turning point in a relationship still full of unanswered questions and unspoken hopes. “This is a fresh start,” Sue said. “We are excited for the future.”
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