I’d like to share a DNA surprise story with you that will likely hit home with your readers in many ways.

All of the major news networks are airing similar stories on a national basis, but this one is centered in Lake Orion.

I am a 58-year-old man who recently learned through DNA testing that my father was not who my mother told me.

I found that my father is alive and well in Lake Orion and very like me in many ways. He is a long-time Lake Orion resident and is a prominent community figure. My father knew about me my entire life and got updates from my mother as recently as a few years ago.

I also learned that I have another sister in Clarkston that apparently our father did not know about.

This news rocked all of our worlds in so many ways.

I joined a support community of 7,000 others like me who are learning to deal with this new-found chaos.

I made contact with my father and met him at a diner in Oxford. Eventually he agreed to take a paternity test to verify the DNA links but he was not agreeable to telling his other two children that they have a brother and sister.

He is no longer taking our calls and two letters sent to him were returned unopened.

The fact that he will not share any of the heritage we were denied is breaking our hearts.

It is my hope that your readers can find a warm place in their hearts and not shut out any new family members that may pop up as a result of DNA testing and encourage any of their friends who might find themselves in a similar situation to do the same.

What happened between our parents was between them and long ago. We shouldn’t hold the resulting child responsible for this.

Whatever the circumstances, the resulting child had no choice in his or her conception and is simply in search of the new identity that has smacked them in the face.

Punishing this person for the activities of their parents should not be socially acceptable.

By bringing this situation to light, it could have a far-reaching positive impact on your readers, many of whom are about to have this same situation thrust upon them.

Mark Gering

Punta Gorda, FL