Sometimes when you go through life, you know that something is not quite right. That was how Jordan Solomon felt about his father. Well…the man everyone told him was his father. Solomon decided to try and do something about it, which started with a simple DNA test. Through a tedious search and taking thousands of notes, he finally struck gold. It’s a long story, but stay with it.
The DNA results came back while he was backpacking in Asia. This was the beginning of 2020 and right before the pandemic hit. Solomon was taken off guard when he realized he had been right all those years. The man he thought was his biological father, wasn’t.
“I was in Cambodia at the time, and I remember I was at a temple and that’s when I had his feeling come over me that like, I think my real dad is alive,” Solomon said.
Back at home
When Solomon returned home, he started searching in earnest for his biological father. Doing this while raising a child and going to university proved to be quite a challenge.
“It was nerve-wracking, it was a lot of information,” he said. “I had papers everywhere. It was all over the floor. It was very rough, but it was worth it.”
He started on his quest because he wanted his son to meet his real Grandpa. There’s no information on whether the man that he was told to be his father is dead or alive now. But wanting to move forward and reconnect with relatives happens a lot when you have kids. You just want them to know where they come from mostly.
A Tipping Point
Eventually while researching his family tree, Solomon was able to make a connection with a woman right before she boarded a cruise in Florida. She asked him to call her daughter in Toronto, who had detailed knowledge of the family tree. After doing so and being able to see her family’s ancestry, the final piece of the puzzle was found.
“I was sitting in my economics class and…the hair on my arms stood up,” Solomon said.
A Happy Ending
Knowing what he did now, Solomon reached out to the man he thought was his biological father on Facebook. Eventually the man would take a paternity test to reveal that Solomon was his son.
The really weird part of this story comes from them both working in the same place at the same time. And them making a connection with each other almost like it was destiny that brought them together then. Years ago when Solomon was working as security in a mall, his biological father was managing a store there. For three or four years, Roger Arsenault, had worked together with his son. And he said he felt like he knew him when they first met.
They both remembered a day when Arsenault gave Solomon a slap on the back and told him he was doing a good job. It was a meaningful moment for both of them, and stuck with them over the years.
Arsenault has since become the father that Solomon thought he’d be. Providing a grandfather role to Solomon’s son, which makes the entire thing worth it right there.
“My grandchild, his son, got on the video chat [and] he looks at me and he says, ‘Can I call you Grampy?'” Arsenault said. “I just lit up like you wouldn’t believe.”
