Found her father after a five year search and her parents fell in love - again

Bonnie Theophilus Colvin says it is an indescribable feeling to find a parent whom you have searched for for a long time; it is really like to find the second half of oneself. Bonnie searched for her father for 5 years and finally found him when she was twenty years old. However, she didn' expect what happened afterwards.

Bonnie was born in the United States in the year of 1959. She has an Icelandic mother, Júlíana Thorfinnsdóttir Colvin, and an American father, Roger Colvin. They met in the Officers' Club at Keflavík Airport Navy Base in 1954, where her mother worked as a waitress, but her father was in the US Army.

"There was a ball in the club and a band was playing. Mom decides to attend it and my dad plays a violin in this band. He approaches mom in the break and asks her to dance and then there was just no turning back, "Bonnie says about the first encounter of her parents. Her mom was nine years older than her dad when they first met.

Love took over

Bonnie says that it was frowned upon that Icelandic women were dating the American soldiers.

"The girls who did it were talked about, but mom ignored it. Love just took over. My dad then asked mom to marry him and they got married in Reykjavík in 1955. Shortly afterwards, they moved to Minnesota in the United States. "

They had a son two years later, but he died two days after birth due to a brain hemorrhage at birth.

"Of course there was much sorrow and shortly afterwards the marriage started to break up. My mom got pregnant, carrying me, but the army sent my dad to Virginia when my mom had been pregnant for several months. She decides to stay in Minnesota. Then the relationship was really over, yet my mom decides to stay abroad with me," Bonnie says. In the meantime, her parents kept writing each other, but when the mother and her daughter move to Iceland when Bonnie is 4 years old, the relationship ends completely.

See also:Has been searching for her Icelandic mother for 20 years.

Did not expect to get in touch with her father

Bonnie said that she asked her mom about her dad while she was young.

"My mother always said that he was a good man, but the relationship just ended and they stopped writing each other. He went somewhere and she didn't know whereto, so the relationship just ended. Yet, my mom never forgot him, she was always in love with him. He was simply the only man in her life."

When Bonnie was 15 years old , her mom went with her to Minnesota, visiting their friends, where Bonnie met a woman, an Icelandic friend of her mom, who had also married an American soldier. She asked them for assistance in the search for her dad.

"Yet, it took quite some time, or about five years. When I'm 20 years old, I receive a letter from the woman, saying that they had gotten a reply from the army, concerning a letter they had sent, relating to the search for my dad. The army said that they were not authorized to give to them or me any information on the location of my dad, but they would send him the information about me and that I wanted to get in touch with him. I didn't expect any result, but I was proved otherwise.

Emotional phone call

Bonnie heard so from her father shortly afterwards, or just after Christmas in 1980, but he said wanted to get in touch with her. He sent Bonnie his phone number and she called him.

"I'll never forget this first call. We both started crying, overwhelmed by our feelings. This was just incredible, I felt like I had found the second half of myself," Bonnie says and it is obvious that she finds it somewhat difficult to talk about this emotinal moment.

Afterwards, she and her father start to write each other. Bonnie says that in their letters he had always asked about her mom.

"At one point, he asks about the address of her mom and they start to write each other. He asks if she's willing to come and visit him, but my mom worked at Flugleiðir (Icelandair), at that time and had a free ticket. Therefore, she decides to go there in June 1980 and is going to stay there for a month. I naturally thought it was fantastic that she was going abroad to meet him."

"I'm going to marry your dad again!"

When her mom has stayed in the US for 10 days, she called her daughter with surprising news.

"She said to me:" Dear Bonnie, I have some news! I'm going to marry your dad again!" I was very suprised and asked her if she was sure she knew what she was doing. She had no doubt about it and said she had always loved him. My dad had been married to other women but it never worked out", Bonnie says.

Her mom decides to move the U.S., but arrives to Iceland to finalize the paperwork.

"When she comes home, it has been decided that my dad will also come in August/September. Then he could attend the baptism of my daughter who was born in the summer. The day he arrives, I was sitting by the kitchen window and waited for them, but me and my mom lived across the street from one another.  I had of course never seen my dad and I was very excited to see him. When I see them coming, holding hands, I came running to greet them. Of course we cried a lot. It was just like me and dad had always known each other."

Grateful for finding her father

Bonnie's parents  moved to Louisiana where they lived for 10 years. Bonnie visited them regularly with her children, but she has two children with her former husband, a daughter, born in 1980, and a son, born in 1985.

"Then my mom really got homesick when she had stayed abroad for 10 years. She misses her grand children, but my dad is not willing to move to Iceland. Therefore, they decide to get a divorce and my mom moves back home. Yet, everything was O.K. and they stayted in touch all the time. Even when my mom went to an old people's home and her memory was beginning to fail, she remembered my dad. They always called each other regularly and my mom always said goodbye to him by saying "I love you, darling!" She was also starting to say goodbye to me and the grand children in the same way when we visited her at the old people's home."

Bonnie's mother died two years ago, but her father is still alive, living in Louisiana. Bonnie also lives in the United States, but she, like her mother, met an American soldier here in Iceland. She moved with him abroad in the year of 1999 and they've been married for 15 years.

Bonnie went with her husband to visit his dad last year, but then she hadn't met him for many years. She says that she hasn't travelled nearly as often to the U.S. when her mom moved to Iceland and it was a joyful reunion when the father and his daughter met again.

"I am very grateful for finding my dad and of course it is wonderful that my parents got 10 good years with each other,"  Bonnie lastly says.