Man Meets Daughter for First Time After Thinking She Was Dead for 45 Years

The feeling of losing a loved one is indescribable. Charles Lutzow of Rockford, Ill., went through it 45 years ago. His estranged wife, Stella, told him that the child they conceived together died during birth.

On Tuesday, Lutzow felt another indescribable feeling: reuniting with a daughter he thought was deceased. Keri Abercrombie did not die at birth; rather, her mother put her up for adoption and kept it a secret from Lutzow.

WIFR, a TV station in Rockford, captured the reunion on camera. It was the culmination of Abercrombie's curiosity: The Alabama resident found her brother using the Adoption Registry and Facebook.

Lutzow didn't think he'd ever see his daughter—Stella never revealed what actually happened before passing away in 2003.

"We've been apart 45 years, now back together," the father told the CBS affiliate. "It's a godsend."

Abercrombie grew up in Utah before moving to Alabama. She traveled on a bus up to Illinois, where she met her father and extended family for the first time. The daughter is actually no stranger to Rockford: According to WIFR, she attended East High School in the city for her senior year in 1985.

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