Reunion ... Frances Simpson & Tony Macnauton

 A DAD and daughter who last saw each other nearly 50 years ago have been reunited by Facebook.

Frances Simpson, 51, was three when her parents split and her father Tony went away.

She spent years trying to trace him without success.

Then a friend researched her family tree as a birthday surprise and Frances was stunned to find she had a half-sister Kim Macnauton.

She looked up Kim on Facebook and sent her a message through the social networking site.

Kim, 19, who lived 200 miles away, replied moments later to say: “Do you want to talk to dad? He’s next to me.”


Memory ... Frances and dad

Frances, of Market Drayton, Shrops, said: “I couldn’t believe it.

“I started talking to him and we haven’t stopped since.”

She organised an emotional reunion with retired trucker Tony, 72.

Then she introduced him to the family he never knew he had — her children Robert, 25, Jody, 22, Callum, 19, Andrew, 17, and Kelvin, 15, and her granddaughter Jessica, two.

Frances said: “After all these years I’ve finally got my dad back. I don’t have the words to describe how I’m feeling.”

She was 18 when she started scouring phone books, newspapers and voters’ lists to find Tony.

But her dad, now of Poole, Dorset, changed his name to Macnauton to start a new life. Kim is his daughter by his second marriage.

Frances said: “I have so many memories. I remember him playing the accordion and making me a swing.”

The pair found they had each cherished the only remaining photos taken of them together.

Tony said: “Even though we lost touch I never forgot Frances.

“I always dreamed of us being reunited. I don’t know what cloud I’m on.”

By JAMIE PYATT

Source: thesun.co.uk