The HOEDSPRUIT HERALD reported last year that one of the town’s local, Diana Becker, was searching for her biological father, and found him after 35 years.
Daniel ‘Dan’ De Chaumont-Saunderson, Diana’s biological father, flew in from the UK and spent a week in Hoedspruit with Diana and her family.
“It was amazing visiting Diana and meeting everyone,” said Dan with teary-eyes.
“When this all started happening it was not supposed to go public,” explained Diana, “I desperately wanted to get to the UK to meet him. I thought, ‘well, a friend told me about go fund me.’ They explained that it was like a wedding registry where you get a code and you send it to all your close friends and family.”
She went on to explain that you write a little story about what you need funding for, and then your friends and family donate.
Diana added that she loved her adoptive parents and that they have been so supportive throughout the whole process of finding Dan.
“I wanted to kind of go and surprise him, you know?” Diana laughed while she shook her head.
Little did she know that the ‘Go fund me’ was public and was starting a bit of chatter.
“This is the part where all of a sudden a friend of mine sent me a link and empathized that she didn’t know I was adopted. I was speechless, I didn’t know it was public!” she continued.
READ: Hoedspruit woman to meet father after 35 years
This was a big surprise for Dan as he had mentioned Diana to his family, but the article was very public.
“I’m a very private person, so it was quite a big thing to be in the paper without expecting it,” said Dan.
They did a paternity test, and while they waited patiently as the months passed both families kept on chatting and bonding.
“So when the results came through and it was a positive match, that’s when I knew I wanted to go see him,” exclaimed Diana.
“It wasn’t a shock to my wife, that I had another child. We talked about it at the start of our relationship. I was fresh out of the army when I met Diana’s biological mother,” explained Dan.
He went on to say that he never knew Diana was put up for adoption.
He always wondered if she was his child.
“Suddenly everyone knew, which was a bit of a conundrum because the papers didn’t have their facts right. I mean, I received so many calls from newspapers across the globe asking for interviews,” added Diana.
She went on to explain that they chatted and decided to tell the story the right way and got into contact with the HERALD.
“There is so much negativity in the world and everyone associates newspapers with negativity. I want to put a little good into the world, give hope to people who were adopted. Stories like this rarely have a happy ending,” exclaimed Diana.
She continued by stating that she hopes her story and the happy ending it has, helps others find the closure they need.
“There are a lot of people who have emotional issues because they are adopted and what I can say is, if you cannot admit it to yourself, you will continue to live in that negative bondage over something that isn’t your fault,” she concluded.
