A young woman’s agonising search for her father By Dale Andrews For 27 years she carried that burden of not knowing who her father was. But the burden was lifted on April 19 when she finally set eyes on the man who was responsible for her coming into this world.Rhaenae and her father Rudolph on the day they found each other after 27 years.She is Rhaenae Waldron John, a mother of four, who now resides at Roxanne Burnham Gardens.All her life Rheanae only knew her stepfather as father but deep down she knew he was not the biological link that many have come to cherish. She longed to find out.It was not as if Rhaenae and her father were oceans apart—they both resided in Guyana all their lives-she was in Georgetown and he was in Berbice.But yet that gap seemed like millions of miles apart.Initially, her mother,Soccer World Cup Jerseys, Judith John,ArDarius Stewart Jersey, was not cooperative and for some strange reason she refused to disclose the identity of the man whose child she had mothered.It was as if Judith John wanted to erase that part of her life even if it meant that her daughter would suffer the consequences.But Rheanae persevered and was rewarded after 27 years when she finally met Rudolph Tappin, the Berbician with whom she immediately bonded.Their first meeting was more than just a happy homecoming— it was like the happy ending? to those fairy tales that always seem to bring a tear to the eye.Rheanae’s resolve to seal that missing link in her life was ignited two years ago when for some strange reason she began feeling an emptiness inside,Charles Aranguiz Jersey, although she was happily married with four “beautiful children”.“I felt something was missing in my life. When I got married I felt that my real father should have been there.”It was not as if her stepfather was not nice to her. In fact he was and during the time she lived with him and her mother she never felt like an outsider.In the early 1980s, Rhaenae’s mother,Cheap Adidas NHL Jerseys, Judith John, who originated from the interior, had travelled to Berbice to work with a family there.During her stay she met Rudolph Tappin and a brief relationship commenced. It led to John becoming pregnant. But before Tappin knew what he had done the young John left and went back to Georgetown with her unborn child.From all appearances, she took that course of action because she found out that Tappin was already living with someone and an outside affair was not something that she wanted.But she was determined to keep her baby despite the objections of her relatives. She gave birth to her first child, a daughter whom she named Rhaenae.“I believe that she really did not want to talk about that part of her life. I never really asked her about it much. My father did not know she was pregnant. He later told me that he thought she had died or went back into the interior,Taylor Gabriel Falcons Jersey,” Rhaenae told Kaieteur News in an interview last week.Rhaenae grew up accepting her fate until she was old enough to realise that something was missing.Two months ago she confided her feelings of longing to meet her father, to her husband.“I had that feeling about eight years ago that my father had died. I asked my mother where he was and his name and it was as if she did not want to talk, so I left it at that,” Rhaenae confided.But a month ago, she again called her mother and almost demanded information on her father but again Judith John was reluctant to divulge.Needless to say that Rhaenae was angry but she did not let her mother know that.Instead she prayed to God that her mother would reveal that secret that was eating at her insides.That proved to be the masterstroke, for one week later her mother had a change of heart and contacted her and gave her some information about her father.“I was so excited. I was not too sure if he was alive or dead but I immediately went to the telephone directory. I was not sure what I would find out.”Rhaenae’s search for her father had commenced in earnest but it was not straightforward, since her mother had only provided her with information about the last person her mother had lived with in Berbice.And even so, the name she had was not the correct one. However the address she was given provided a clue for she eventually made contact with a woman who provided her with the right name of the persons her mother had stayed with.Rhaenae went back to the telephone directory and she was soon rewarded when she made contact with a male.“I asked him if they knew my father. Mind you, I only had his surname. He said he knew my father, that he was a relative. I asked him if my father