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An adopted woman who spent her whole life searching for her birth parents tracked them down just months before they passed away.

Megan Kennedy, 37, grew up knowing she was adopted and on her 18th birthday, she applied for her original birth certificate and found her biological mum’s name – Patti Neil.

But it wasn’t until 2018 when new records were made available that Megan found the details of her mum online.

Megan discovered her mum lived in Scotland, UK, where Megan was set to travel in June 2019.

She reached out to her birth mum, Patti, 64, a retired sales person, on Facebook, who was delighted to hear from her – and the pair reunited in Glasgow, Scotland, UK, sitting and chatting for hours.

Patti died in February 2020 unexpectedly after struggling with stomach issues.

Megan then found she had a genetic match with a half-sister and an aunt and these matches led her to discover her biological father, Johnny Cavalier, 62, a retired businessman.

Johnny tragically died in February 2022 from polycystic kidney failure before they could meet in person.

Megan has travelled over 4,000 miles across the world to reunite with her long-lost family – and despite losing both birth parents, feels she has found her “true identity” and “all her people”.

Megan, a wedding photographer, from Birmingham, Alabama, USA, said: “It’s almost hard to put into words how it feels – it’s an immense feeling of peace.

“Every birthday I spent hours looking for Patti, it’s amazing to think I will never have to look again.

“It’s bittersweet, but I’m so grateful I reconnected with my biological parents before they passed.”

Megan was over-the-moon when her biological mum, Patti, agreed to meet up in June 2019. She said: “I was so nervous but so excited. I felt every feeling you could have felt – we met at Glasgow train station and literally ran across the platform to hug each other. Everyone watching cried, it was like a movie.”

Patti explained her mother, Megan’s grandmother, was from Wales, UK, and her father, Megan’s grandfather, was from Fort Worth, Texas, US, and he fought during the second World War. Patti, who had dual citizenship, grew up Fort Worth, Texas, US, and when she was 27 went to go and live with her sister, Sherrie, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, US.

Patti – who was married at the time – worked on the boats as a deck hand and fell for “lady’s man”, Johnny, 24, who was a diver. She told Megan they had a month-long relationship and that’s when their daughter was conceived.

Patti says she didn’t tell Johnny when she fell pregnant – as she was already married. She says she gave Megan up in the hope she would have a better life.

She gave birth in Mobile, Alabama, US, where Megan was adopted by Arthur Forehand, 71, a retired pharmacist, and Cassie Wilson, 72, a medical transcriptionist, through an adoption agency. As for her father, Patti couldn’t remember his name, but Megan received a DNA match on website for a half-sister, Kayla, 30, stay-at-home mum, from New Orleans, Louisiana, US.

The sisters downloaded their ‘raw DNA’ and uploaded it onto another website – GEDmatch – and the data comparison revealed they shared an ‘X chromosome’ – meaning they shared a father. In September 2020, the sisters were on FaceTime and they both received an ancestry.com match out of the blue.

The website revealed they had a match – an aunt, Kathy Colllins, 66, in Highlands, Texas, US – and they quickly reached out.

Kathy told them: “There’s going to be some surprises, you need to buckle in.” Their aunt revealed she had two brothers – one had been married since high school, so they ruled him out as a potential dad, she then sent over photographs of her other brother, Johnny.

Kathy reached out to Johnny on the girls’ behalf, and he asked for them to send letters. “He completely accepted us both, he was so open and sweet and wanted to get to know us,” Megan said.

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“He has a wife, Ragnhildur, 35, two years younger than me and a seven-year-old child, Ajay, my little brother,” she revealed.

Johnny and his family all lived in Roatán, an island off the coast of Honduras.

In September 2021 Megan was set on travelling to meet her father but she was sceptical of Covid, had her three-year-old, Cora, and flights were extortionate.

They decided to hold off but in November 2021, Johnny was diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease and Megan didn’t realise just how ill he was.

Megan was booked to finally meet her father in January 2022 but was struck with Covid and couldn’t travel.

Two weeks later, Megan received an earth-shattering phone call from his wife, Ragnhildur, to say Johnny was in hospital and it wasn’t looking good, he died a few hours later on 17th February 2022.

Megan said: “That was terrible. It was so hard, I hated we got Covid the week we were meant to go.

“I’ve had therapy that was provided to me through my adoption agency, but I miss my biological parents every day.”

In March 2022, Megan travelled down to Roatán to spread her late father’s ashes in the Caribbean sea in an emotional celebration of his life on a boat. Megan met her little half-brother Ajay, seven, for the first time and her step-mum Ragnhildur.

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