This woman’s fate led her to find her biological parents no matter how long it took.
Deanna Rhodes was adopted as a baby, and like most cases, she reached a point where she wanted to trace where she came from.
It took her years to find the answers she had been looking for all her life, and in the end, she said it was all worth it.
She first found her mother, Sally King, at age 27.
Her mother was not interested in meeting and getting to know Deanna, but she was persistent.
One day, she decided to track where Sally lived and knocked on her door for a surprise.
That was the start of their mother-daughter relationship until it ended.
Deanna didn’t know that Sally had cancer.
For months, she never saw any signs or took notice. Her mother died in August 2019 and was buried along with a big secret.
Deanna had been asking Sally about her father, but she was so tight-lipped about it.
However, before Sally died, she told Deanna two important information about her father.
She said that her father was Greek and that he lived in Richmond, Virginia.
It’s not much to start with, but Deanna thought it was better than nothing.
She set up a Facebook Group dedicated to searching for her father along with friends and some volunteers.
She also signed up in various DNA registries hoping that any match would give her the lead she needed.
It was a long search, but after ten years of searching, Deanna eventually found her father.
It may sound crazy, but she claimed that God spoke to her, saying her father’s name was Gus.
As an ordained pastor, she prayed for any direction or sign to continue her search, and it was her faith that brought her a step closer to her father.
True enough, one phone call confirmed it all. Her father’s name is Gus Nicholas.
“I reached out to this cousin, and I said, ‘We’ve just matched on 23andMe’. … And he said, ‘I think you’re my Uncle Gus’ daughter.’ And I said, ‘I think that, too,'” she said in an interview with CBS Mornings.
She called him the next day, and they agreed to meet up in a week at the hospital.
Gus fell in his home a few weeks before their meeting, so Deanna had to drive to where he was admitted.
Even if they had just met, she had this crazy idea of asking her father if she could take him to her house so they could take care of him, and he never hesitated and said yes.
Gus was alone before this moment, but he was glad Deanna found him.
“He said, ‘I woke up this morning, and I was alone. … And now, this afternoon, I have a daughter. I have a son-in-law. I have three grandchildren. I have great-grandchildren. … I’m not alone in the world anymore,'” she recalled her father’s words.
Deanna’s guest room is now Gus’s room.
It was a small one but fit his hospital bed perfectly.
She looks after him daily, ensuring he is well-fed and has someone to keep him company.
Deanna was willing to spend her life taking care of the father she had just met until the very end.
Her only condition was for her to get to know Gus better.
Watch the entire feature in CBS Mornings in the video below.
