'Instant family': how a northern Ontario father was reunited with his long-lost daughter

In March 1964, John Smith saw his first born child for just a moment.

Then he and his soon-to-be wife Lorraine went home, leaving the little girl to be raised by someone else, as often happened with children born out of wedlock in those days.

John and Lorraine settled in their small northern Ontario hometown of Blind River and had three more children, but never discussed that first daughter they reluctantly put up for adoption. 

"It was rather futile to have conversations about the what ifs," said Smith, now 79 and living in Sudbury.

"It was part of our past."

But that would change in 2005, when a woman in Texas named Erika MacMillan, who had three children of her own, discovered she had an entire family she never knew about. 

Hear the full story here:

Morning North6:40A story of a long-lost daughter and her 'instant family' for Father's Day

John Smith of Sudbury will be celebrating Father's Day with his four children. His eldest daughter Erika is 58, but they missed out on about 40 Father's Days and birthdays. The CBC's Erik White picks up the story from there.