Jyll Justamond, 40, of Littleton, Colorado, had never met her father. Her mother only gave her limited details of her dad, but she was determined to go ahead and find him. All she knew was that he was Italian, his name was Al and he had been working at a bar called Neary’s back in the 1970s when her mother met him. Her search continued for decades, but she eventually tracked him down after making a post on Facebook. 63-year-old Al Annunziata who lives in Cliffside Park will finally get to celebrate Father’s Day with a daughter he didn’t really know he had.
A happy birthday surprise for Justamond
In April, Justamond made a post on Facebook in the Palisades Park group, where Neary’s bar had been located at the time her father worked there. Her post got a response on April 3, which just happened to be her 40th birthday, and what a birthday present it was.
As reported by the New York Post, she was contacted by the former owner of the bar, who knew exactly who she was talking about. Justamond told ABC that when she spoke to him, she said she knew it was crazy, but asked him if he knew a guy named Al who worked in the bar around 1976 or 1977, to which the owner of the bar responded immediately with the name Al Annunziata.
It was shortly after this that Annunziata got a surprise message, asking if he was Al.
Annunziata said Justamond told him that he might know her biological mother, whose name is Linda. The shocked and surprised father said he was “really scared” and that his heart was pounding when she said that.
(New York Post) #Dad meets daughter for the first time after 40 years : CLIFFSIDE PARK,.. https://t.co/KUAWziJe4G pic.twitter.com/1wIqVZZFOS
— InUSANews.com (@inusanewscom) June 17, 2017
Annunziata to finally experience Father’s Day with his daughter
Al went on to explain that when Linda became pregnant 40 Years ago, she had said someone else was the father of her child.
While he believed her at the time, deep down he had a feeling that the baby might have been his. He said it was a question that was never fully resolved over all those years, until now. A paternity test was run which went to prove that Annunziata was, indeed, Justamond’s father and she went to New Jersey to meet her dad for the first time on June 11.
Annunziata told ABC News he was thrilled to know he has a daughter, saying this is only the beginning and that he will never let his beautiful daughter out of his life again. As can be seen from the video, when they met, Justamond shared all kinds of milestones with her father, to catch him up on her life.
A discovery prompts Justamond’s search for her father
According to the report by ABC News, one of the main reasons for Justamond’s search was that she had found out her parents were, in actual fact, her grandparents. It turned out her biological mother was only 18 when she gave birth to Justamond and she had asked her mother and stepfather to raise her as their own.
She only found out about this when she was 10 years of age.
She said it was bizarre to find out her half-sister was, in fact, her mother and she tried to have a relationship with her, but things were difficult at the time.
Now Justamond knows exactly who both her biological mother and father are and Annunziata gets to celebrate Father’s Day in real style.
