Father found after lifetime search
On the last day of 2020 Analise Forster sent amessage to a stranger.
She asked if he’d once owned a Bob Marley jersey and had mates called Tui and Sam. She asked if he’d lived in Porirua more than 20 years ago.
She told him she’d been looking for her father for years, finding only dead ends and doubts, and the pair swapped messages for more than an hour before Analise accepted an incoming video call.
And, finally, there he was. After nearly a lifetime of searching, it was a bit of spit that led Forster to her dad.
Until she took a DNA test, the only clues to her father’s identity were the Bob Marley jersey he had given her mum, the names of his friends, and the knowledge he had lived in Cannons Creek in 1995.
She also knew he was Samoan and named either Sefu or Sefo.
Forster’s parents were teenagers when she was conceived and her dad probably didn’t even know she existed, she told Stuff in 2016 when she first went public with her search.
She had turned to social media after agencies and a television show told her she didn’t have enough information on her father, and, while sharing her story resulted in a pile of leads and advice, nothing came of them.
While Forster never gave up, she has been careful.
As someone who experiences anxiety, it has not been easy appealing to the public or approaching strangers, and she has taken breaks from the search to be kind to herself.
It was the birth of her daughter that reignited her determination and eventual DNA test.
‘‘I didn’t want another generation to go through this ... to wonder where they came from.’’
The result came back on New Year’s Eve, and immediately after logging on to the company’s genealogy website, the Palmerston North woman discovered a second cousin also looking for family members.
‘‘I thought she’d be looking for the same people I was, but she was looking for the other side of the family.
‘‘She gave me my father’s name and I sent him amessage on Facebook.’’
For a process that’s taken so many years, Forster says the biggest shock was how it all ended so quickly. She and her ‘‘shocked but excited’’ dad spoke at length, and she showed him his grandchild. He lives in Invercargill and they’re making plans to get together in person.
‘‘He never even knew I was looking for him ... he gave my mum the jersey at a train station the last time he saw her. They were both 18.’’
Now, nearly 25 years old, Forster says it’s overwhelming to have finally found the man she spent so long looking for. It’d be easy to mourn all those years apart but really, what’s the point?
‘‘I’mstill young, Dad’s still young, and my daughter is still a baby. There’s still time for us.’’