A love story that will warm your heart
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| Reunited ... Kate and Nathan with daughter Hayley |
AS Kate Williams sent a text telling the man she’d had a fling with it was over, she had no idea she would soon spend the next six years trying to find him again.
Two months later, 18-year-old Kate discovered she was pregnant — then realised she had no way of contacting the 21-year-old lighting salesman.
Messages she left on the mobile number she had for him weren’t returned so Kate made the 460-mile round-trip to his former address to quiz neighbours.
With only his name, Nathan Bacon, to go on, Kate searched the phone book, trawled the internet and made several other trips to Bournemouth from her Cheshire home. But all with no luck.
Finally, in 2007, after Hayley had turned five, Kate logged on to Facebook for her monthly check for Nathan — and found him.
Kate, a carer, was finally able to tell him about Hayley and, when the pair met up, they realised the spark that had created the little girl was still there.
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| Close ... Hayley and mum Kate before finding Nathan |
In May this year, they wed with the daughter who brought them back together at their side... and her baby sister Caitlin, now one.
Kate, now 30, says: “I can’t believe I lost him, but finding him after all those years was well worth the wait.”
Nathan, 33, adds: “Now we’re all finally together, and we have Caitlin too, I couldn’t be happier.
“I’m so happy Kate tracked me down. I never forgot about her and if I’d have known she was looking for me I wouldn’t have rested till I found her.”
Kate met Nathan in 2001 after she went looking for her birth mother. She left her home town of Helsby and travelled to Bournemouth, planning to stay just a few days. But 18 months later she was still there getting to know her biological family.
Kate says: “In a local pub one night I was with my birth mother, Gale, when Nathan walked in.
“We got taking and hit it off. When he invited me for drinks and a trip to the cinema I thought, ‘Why not?’.
“I really liked Nathan and after our first date we met up a few times and slept together twice.
“But we were young and I missed my adoptive family so three months after first meeting Nathan I fled back to Cheshire, telling Nathan I was leaving in a text message.”
As she settled back into home life, Kate didn’t think much about Nathan. Then, two months later, she discovered she was pregnant.
Shocked, kate tried to contact Nathan on the one number she had for him but could get no reply.
“I knew the baby was Nathan’s but his number wasn’t giving me any response and I began to worry,” she says.
“I started frantically looking in phone books and address books to track him down but couldn’t find him anywhere in Bournemouth.”
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| 'Now we're all finally together, I couldn't be happier' ... Nathan with Kate, Hayley and Caitlin at wedding |
After months of searching and calling her birth mum to check if she’d seen him, Kate went to Bournemouth to search.
“I knocked on his neighbours’ doors but just kept getting blank faces.
“I visited the local pubs and shops asking everyone I saw if they knew of a Nathan Bacon, but no one did.”
Meanwhile, Nathan had no idea she was looking for him. Having changed his mobile, he had a new number. He had also moved to a cheaper place seven miles from where he’d been living.
Having failed to find him, Kate returned home and, in February 2002, gave birth to Hayley, now ten.
Kate says: “Hayley was the spitting image of Nathan from the moment she was born.
“I hated the fact I’d lost Hayley’s dad and it hurt that she might never meet him. I visited Bournemouth every six months to try to find him but had no luck and he never appeared in the new editions of the phone book.”
Single mum Hayley got on with bringing up Hayley alone but continued looking for Nathan online.
“As Hayley grew up I searched for him on social networking sites like Bebo and Friends Reunited but nothing came up.
“I didn’t know his family or friends so didn’t have any links, I was just drawing up blanks.
“I joined Facebook but he seemed to be non-existent. I didn’t know what else to do. Then, in July 2007, I entered
Nathan’s name into Facebook and his profile came up.
“I couldn’t believe I was staring at the man I’d searched for, for six years. It was the day I dreamed of.
“I messaged Nathan straight away and asked him to look at the pictures of my daughter Hayley, because she might be his.”
Electrical salesman Nathan admits: “I was gobsmacked. I could see Hayley looked like me. I showed the pictures to my brothers and sisters, who couldn’t believe the similarity.”
Nathan agreed to meet them and said he’d like a paternity test.
Two weeks later Kate and Hayley headed to Bournemouth.
Kate says: “I spoke on the phone to Nathan first and it was so strange to finally hear his voice.”
Hayley thought they were going to see an old friend — and despite having never seen a photo of Nathan, knew
immediately he was the person they were meeting.
“Hayley picked him out at the McDonald’s straight away and when I introduced her he threw his arms around her. I felt so choked up.”
The next day, Kate received the results of the paternity test by email.
Kate says: “I could barely look but there it was in black and white — Nathan was Hayley’s dad.”
And Nathan wasted no time in getting to know his daughter, travelling up to Cheshire most weekends.
Not wanting to upset or confuse Hayley the pair took their time in telling her Nathan was her real dad.
Kate says: “When we eventually sat her down and told her, she took it all in her stride and seemed really excited to have found her dad.”
And as time passed Kate and Nathan realised the spark that created Hayley had never gone away.
Kate says: “The more we got to know each other, the more I liked him. I couldn’t do long-distance.
“I’d waited long enough and now I’d fallen in love with him I never wanted to lose him.”
She and Hayley moved to Bournemouth in August 2009 and say they are now the perfect family.
Nathan says: “Once Kate and Hayley found me I never wanted to leave them and when Kate felt the same I felt like the luckiest man alive.”
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