{"id":16351,"date":"2024-11-05T12:28:24","date_gmt":"2024-11-05T12:28:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/its-a-miracle-dad-was-found-30-years-on\/"},"modified":"2024-11-05T12:28:24","modified_gmt":"2024-11-05T12:28:24","slug":"its-a-miracle-dad-was-found-30-years-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/its-a-miracle-dad-was-found-30-years-on\/","title":{"rendered":"‘It’s a miracle Dad was found 30 years on’"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\"MikaMika Ap Ellis<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

After 30 years being estranged, Mika Ap Ellis found her dad <\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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“I couldn’t believe it when he replied 20 minutes later saying: \u2018yes, I know your father.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

This was the moment Mika Ap Ellis\u2019 long search for her dad, who she hadn\u2019t seen for 30 years, was nearly over.<\/p>\n

Ms Ap Ellis had spent years searching for her father, Omar, whom she had last seen as a child.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cI’ve never really had a relationship with him. However, I did have letters from him. I had birthday cards from him and I had loads of photos, so I knew that there was a connection.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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She said it wasn\u2019t until her 18th birthday and into her early twenties that she gave serious thought about searching for her dad.<\/p>\n

The only lead she had from those who knew Omar was that he was likely homeless and sleeping rough on the streets.<\/p>\n

Ms Ap Ellis said her first attempts at finding her dad was through charities and council agencies that support homeless people but their help was limited due to data protection rules.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"MikaMika Ap Ellis<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Ms Ap Ellis said old photos and birthday cards were the last connection she had to her dad<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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\u201cI kept hitting brick walls as I went along,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

It was while watching a news segment on BBC London in November two years ago that she got a fresh lead.<\/p>\n

It covered the work of Verral Paul-Walcott, from Tottenham, who runs a cycling group distributing food and other supplies to people sleeping on London\u2019s streets.<\/p>\n

Ms Ap Ellis said she took the chance and messaged him on social media to ask if he knew where her dad had been sleeping.<\/p>\n

Mr Paul-Walcott replied within minutes to say he did know where Omar was.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"MikaMika Ap Ellis<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Verral Paul-Walcot (second left) confirmed he knew Omar’s location within 20 minutes of being messaged<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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\u201cIt was absolutely amazing, I just couldn’t believe it\u201d, Ms Ap Ellis said. \u201cFrom that, it took me a long time to get my head around it and try to understand what I wanted from meeting my father.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one thing knowing where they are after 30 years – you just don\u2019t know how it\u2019s going to be,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

The moment Mr Paul-Walcott received the message from Ms Ap Ellis, he said he went straight to the spot where he knew Omar slept.<\/p>\n

“I approached him and like normal I asked him if he needed some support, and he told me the essentials that he needed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got them for him and when I came back, I said to him: ‘I have some news for you. There’s someone called Mika who would like to see you.’ He looked up at me, and his eyes filled up and he said: ‘That’s my daughter.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The cycling group helping London’s homeless<\/figcaption><\/p>\n
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Omar recorded a voice message on Mr Paul-Walcott\u2019s phone to play to his daughter so she could hear her father’s voice for the first time in three decades.<\/p>\n

From there Mr Paul-Walcott kept in touch with Omar and ultimately supported the long lost father and daughter finally meeting up in person.<\/p>\n

“My dad knew now that I was coming down. He’d spoken to Verral and he was going to be in his usual spot outside Five Guys,\u201d Ms Ap Ellis said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"MikaMika Ap Ellis<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Ms Ap Ellis said she chatted with her dad “for hours and hours” when they met<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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\u201cIn my head I’m still thinking I don’t think he’s going to be there. It’s been thirty years so I wasn’t really expecting much.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was so nervous when I eventually went over to him, and said \u2018are you Omar?\u2019 and he said yes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hugged him and it was a really surreal moment, but it didn’t feel like a stranger, it did feel like home in a weird sort of way. For the rest of the day we went up to the park and we just chatted for hours and hours and hours just about all sorts”.<\/p>\n

She described finding her father this way as a \u201cmiracle\u201d.<\/p>\n

“If anybody is looking for anybody in London especially if they’re homeless, I give Verral an hour and he’ll find them,\u201d Ms Ap Ellis said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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Mika Ap Ellis After 30 years being estranged, Mika Ap Ellis found her dad “I couldn’t believe it when he replied 20 minutes later saying: \u2018yes, I know your father.\u2019\u201d This was the moment Mika Ap Ellis\u2019 long search for her dad, who she hadn\u2019t seen for 30 years, was nearly over. Ms Ap Ellis […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16352,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[291,3536,380],"class_list":["post-16351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uk","tag-dad","tag-miracle","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16351"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16353,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16351\/revisions\/16353"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}