It is not uncommon to hear adopted people express their longing to find the missing pieces of the life-puzzles Those who do not know the identities of their either of their biological parents, agree. It was no different for 41-year-old Canadian, Bernice Clarke.

Clarke’s mother died last year, taking the secret identity of Bernice’s father to her grave. Bernice yearned for a connection with her father her whole life. Years of searching for clues in Iqaluit and on ancestry websites yielded no results until last year after her mother’s death. Clarke’s aunt provided clues as to the possible identity of her father, but soon DNA results broke Bernice’s heart, along with her dreams of ever finding her father.

A Montreal man, Guy Trinque, was on the same heart-wrenching journey to find his biological origins. Knowing he was adopted, his efforts to uncover his roots were ongoing on an ancestry website.

Imagine Clark’s shock when she received word from the ancestry service that both she and Trinque were using, saying they had found her father! Clarke considers it a miracle that they were connected at all.

Their first telephone conversation presented some challenges as the line was bad and made it difficult for Clarke to understand Trinque’s French-Canadian accent. Despite this, Clarke told the media that she would always remember the call she had waited her entire life for.

The discovery of her father has brought healing to Clarke. Her father recounted the story of how he met her mother in 1974, when he was in Iqaluit on a work related stay, in a letter written to Bernice soon after they connected. In it, Trinque gave Clarke the most precious gift of all when he assured her that he would have chosen to be a part of her life, had he known of her birth.

In a world where happy endings seem few and far between, this story serves to encourage others on the same journey to preserver. It also acts as a reminder that withholding the truth can break the hearts of others.