In a profoundly moving television moment, a man has hugged his mother for the first time in over half a century, finally reuniting after a separation that began when he was just five years old.
A Childhood Mystery Unravels
The emotional scene will feature in the new series of ITV's Long Lost Family, where hosts Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell helped Alan Parker, 56, find his mother, Anne. Alan last saw his mother in 1975 when she walked out of the family home in Reading, Berkshire, leaving him and his younger siblings with their father. For 51 years, he was left wondering why she had gone.
Alan's last memory of his mother was her giving him an Action Man toy for his fifth birthday. "I remember my mum handing me my birthday present. I was delighted and then my mum left," he recalled. "I was looking out of the window and that is the last time I recall seeing my mum. I can't remember my mum's face or anything. Maybe it was too traumatic."
He described a family life that started happily but became strained by rows between his parents. "My dad was not always easy to get on with," Alan said. "I think that is what turned it into such a bad relationship." After the family moved to East Anglia, any trail to find his mother went cold.
A Mother's Painful Decision
The show's researchers located Anne through a distant relative, discovering she was living on the south coast and had two children from a second marriage. She was shocked to learn Alan wanted to make contact, having long feared rejection.
"I've often thought I'd like to [get in touch]," Anne confessed. "Then I thought what if they say, 'After what you did, we don't want to know you'. That is worse than not meeting them."
Anne explained she felt compelled to leave her marriage because she did not feel safe. "The situation wasn't good. It wasn't happy and it got to a point where I thought it was safer for me not to be there," she revealed. She moved into a small bedsit, unsuitable for young children, with the hope of getting settled and then reclaiming them. Tragically, within a year, her ex-husband had moved away with the children and she lost all trace of them.
Nicky Campbell praised Anne's bravery for appearing on camera, noting it is unusual for mothers in her situation to do so.
The Long-Awaited Embrace
When they finally met, the decades melted away. Anne told her son, "Let's get to know each other better. It doesn't feel like I don't know you. That bond went on and on. I have got my son back."
Alan, a car salesman now living in Ireland with his partner Sue and daughter Katie, expressed only love and sadness, never hatred. "This is one of the most important days in my life," he told Anne. "I have never felt any bias towards you or hatred. I was only ever sad because you had gone. All I ever did was miss you."
Davina McCall reflected on the search, saying, "When I think about his search, I picture him as a little boy suddenly deprived of his mother's love and warmth. It must have been so hard." The episode also highlights the brutal social reality of the era, where women who left their husbands had no automatic right to keep their children.
The new series also features care worker Katherine Fletcher, who discovers the fate of her mother Adrienne, with a trail leading to Canada.
*Long Lost Family returns to ITV and ITVX on Thursday at 9pm.
