Reunion still going strong

Families involved in adoption story remain tight two years later

“We had the chance again to celebrate Christmas with Melanie. She’s very precious to me.’’ Martine Chartrand

Things continue to go very well for Francis Menard and his birth mother as well as their extended families.

Menard reached out to The Guardian in 2016 in a last-ditch effort to find his birth parents in P.E.I.

Within hours of the article going online, Melanie Cantwell, Menard’s birth mother and a native of Charlottetown, reached out to him. What followed was a reunion only writers in Hollywood could think up in terms of how close Cantwell and Menard would get and how close Cantwell would get to the woman who adopted Menard, Martine Chartrand of Embrun, Ont.

“We had the chance again to celebrate Christmas with Melanie,’’ Chartrand told The Guardian via a Facebook message, adding how close they’ve become. “She’s very precious to me.’’

Chartrand went on to say that some people in her life still don’t understand how she can let Cantwell be a part of Menard’s life.

Chartrand said she can’t even fathom the thought of keeping the two apart.

“(Melanie) is part of the family now and forever.’’

In the spring, Menard will spend two months in P.E.I., fishing with his birth father, Alan MacQuarrie of Crapaud.

“Those two together look like they have known each other since always. The bond between them is very special, too.’’