Woman returns to dad 50 years after 'death'

Nearly 50 years ago, Mousa Al Mankari of Saudi Arabia married a Yemeni woman but a year later he divorced her although she was pregnant. When he later asked her about the child, she told him that she was born dead.

Like in movies, Mankari went on with his life in the Western Red Sea port of Jeddah on the assumption his daughter had died but deep within, he knew she was alive. At 86, his hunch came true and his child, now 50, united with the shocked man.

Salima, wearing a traditional Saudi face veil, returned to her real father after her step father divulged the secret to her just minutes before his death.

“Minutes before he died, my (step) father Hassan Maroui told me who I really am and begged me to return to my real father,” she told the Saudi daily Al Watan.

“He told me where my real father lives…so I went to that place and asked the mosque preacher about him…he told me my father would come to pray in the mosque at any moment…when he came to the mosque and I saw him, I instantly knew he is my father..I realized there is some resemblance…I was very much delighted.”

Mankari was equally happy but shocked when he saw his daughter, saying he was sure she is his daughter and that she was alive.

“She is really my daughter,” he screamed through the packed mosque. “Yes she is and I am quite sure of this…take a piece of my heart, analyze it and you will know she is my daughter…I will never abandon her in my life….I will register her with her four sisters in the personal department..I can undergo a DNA test to prove she is my daughter.”

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