Marcial Verdejo Jr. is a maintenace worker at Paz de Cristo Shelter in Mesa, Arizona. He was being honored with a Good Samaritan award by the Mesa Fire Department for helping to fight a fire at the shelter until fire fighters arrived. Marcial Jr., is pretty modest about it and says that he was just trying to save his job.
Never the less, the story of the 61-year-old Verdejo made the news and another man named Marcial Verdejo III of Caledonia, Wisconsin just happened to see a clip of it on TV and recognized the man being honored as his father–who he hadn't seen in 18 years! Can you believe that?
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Marcial III was 12-years-old when his father left home and never came back. Throughout the years Marcial III would wonder what had happened to his father and would occasionally Google him, but to no avail. When he saw his father on the news, he called the Paz de Cristo Shelter and was able to have a conversation with his long-lost father.
Marcial Jr. also left behind two other sons and a daughter with special needs. His absence from his childrens' lives was due to a serious drug problem that later resulted in years of homelessness before the shelter provided him with the means to a better life by giving him a job.
Marcial III is now his sister's caregiver, and his brother Jean PierreVerdijo lives in Austin, Texas. Amazingly, both have found it in their hearts to forgive their father and give him a second chance. They are happy for the closure and for the opportunity to reunite.
Marcial Jr.'s third son, Anthony, is still coming to terms with the reemergence of his father. I can't blame him. It can't possibly be easy to have a father disappear for almost two decades and to feel so abandoned.
Still, I think it is wonderful that a chance sighting of a news story is giving this family the opportunity to bond, mend, and heal. I wish them all the very best.
Image via 12 News
