Father’s Day: A half-Thai half-British man looking for his father for thirty years – BBC News Thailand

• Issariya Praithongyam
• BBC Thai

Simon Anderson was born in Saudi Arabia. but grew up in Bangkok For the past thirty years He tried unsuccessfully to find his biological father, who was British. Two years ago, he searched until he found that he had brothers and sisters. The other two are from different mothers in England. who is likely to be a medium leading to meeting his father But until now the dream “I will be able to hug my father once” is still just a dream.

“Mom said don’t ask for it. It’s dead,” Simon recalled with a bitter laugh when BBC Thai interviewed him through the Zoom application.

Dara met Keith, an Englishman whom Simon said was his father, in Thailand around 1990 when she was out with a friend at a pub. She said that at that time Keith working as a dental technician in Saudi Arabia But traveling to rest in Thailand

after acquaintance The two had been in a relationship for one to two years. Before getting married and registering your marriage in Thailand She decided to travel with him to Saudi Arabia. In a strict Muslim country, Dara learns that Keith has a habit of drinking beer to the point of addiction. Still, she stayed with him and became pregnant to have the heir that Keith wanted.

When she was nine months pregnant but she was not yet due to give birth. Doctors at King Fahad Hospital She was forced to deliver her prematurely because Keith was fired from her job and ordered to leave Saudi Arabia as soon as possible. According to the stars who interviewed the BBC Thai through the Zoom application The reason was because he was drunk and used inappropriate words with his colleagues.

When a star gives birth to a child for a few days She traveled back to Thailand. But Keith returned to England.

“He said that if he had a job, he would come back and take it,” Dara said.

She also said that he later wrote about three letters to her. said that he had done the job and will take her and her child to England But in less than a year Keith lost contact. In total, she received no more than five letters from him.

She then raised Simon and her other children born to her ex-husband. and current husband without being divorced from Keith because I couldn’t find him Today, she and her children still use his Anderson surname.

“Mom always talks about bad things about Dad, nothing good. I think he probably left the egg. But think again if he left the egg. Why would you take your mother to Saudi Arabia?” Simon said, adding that he still had many questions about the father he had never known. and made me think of finding my father since the age of five But it wasn’t just him who had questions about his father.

“Honey, honey, where did your father go? I’ve never seen your father. Simon didn’t react. but came home feeling sad When I asked my mother, I could only answer that “It’s already dead. It’s already dead.”

“It’s a knot in my heart. Growing up, I wanted to know, wanted to meet, wanted to ask, why didn’t you want to see me?”

Simon once tried to find his father by contacting a TV program in Thailand to do his story. in order to meet the father as many people have found But he was not interested in any program. He used to try to search the internet but failed until 2020 when he came to know of the Thai Women’s Alliance Network in the UK. and contacted him to help him find his father

Kanitya Niamklin, president of the Thai Women’s Alliance Network Association, told BBC Thai that he had traveled to the house as on the page of the envelope believed to belong to his father sent to Simon’s mother. And found that Simon’s father’s family had moved out of the house not far from Newcastle.

Kanitya tells the story to a neighbor who has a new address for the Keith family. and leave a business card Soon she was contacted by a woman who said she was Simon’s half-sister.

Finally, he was able to talk to his sister online. and knew that the father had two daughters before him. My sister also told me that Simon’s grandmother told her that she had a younger brother in Thailand. They even sent him a current photo of their father. but said that his father was no longer in England

“I didn’t ask him much about my father. Ask them if they are fine. Say hi to each other.” Simon didn’t ask for his father’s address. and hardly asked much about his father

“Just ask He doesn’t really want to see us,” he said gloomily. I thought that if my father contacted him based on the phone number and address he sent to my sister He must have actually had a conversation with his father.

“If you meet face to face I might have hugged him once. I never knew what it was like to hug my real father.”

Meeting his father was probably Simon’s greatest dream. at the same time Simon has the latest British passport he just received. After spending a long time collecting documents Passport is a ticket for him to go to England to find a job. He is currently practicing the language and hopes to go to work in England early next year as Thai people in England have promised to help. After he posted a message on social media looking for a job in the UK.

But if true, it would mean he would have to leave the six-year-old son he adopted after divorcing his wife. keep it with your own mother

“I am sure that I love my children no less than anyone else… even without a father as an example of how to raise a child. But my mother was both my mother and father who raised me. Nobody in the family had a problem. or addicted to drugs.”

Simon had also thought that if he had lived in his father’s country since childhood, his life would have been better. But all this was something he himself had to prove. Including the unresolved issues about the father.

“It’s a shame why he’s not there to take care of us. At least it’s good to ask. But this hasn’t sent me some news. Why?”