John Hodge, a 35-year-old man from Bangor, travelled half way around the world to be reunited with his long-lost mother in Nepal.
Hodge grew up from the age of six-years-old without his mother, after she returned to Nepal when her marriage to his father broke down. Nearly 30 years later, he managed to track her down in a remote village in Nepal.
His mother, Maile (57), has been living "with no real home, no money and no hope of ever finding her son", which has taken its toll on her both physically and mentally, so the seemingly impossibly reunion has made a heartwarming story for both of them.
Speaking to The Belfast Telegraph, Hodge said "we knew she came from a village in east Nepal called Phalametar but we couldn't even find it on the map...Mum's surname is Limbuni, which is a variation of Limbu, which is our caste or ethnicity and very common in the region. Kul had warned that it would be hard to find her because the name was so common".
Pic via A House for Maile/Facebook
However, when he was making arrangements to get an interpreter with the hotel where he was staying, they contacted a local school and told the story to the principal, who it turns out knew his mother and was related to Hodge. They made contact with her, but kept the surprise intact for John when he arrived: "It was absolutely wonderful and such a relief to know she was definitely alive and that she knew we were there and I was coming".
He returned home to Ireland after the meeting, where he's hoping to raise money for a new home for Maile through a Facebook page, but was greeted with the news less than a week after coming back that a devastating earthquake had hit the region. Although it took a week to get news, thankfully his mother had survived.
If he manages to raise enough money, anything that's left over after building her a new home will go to the relief effort after the earthquake.
Via Independent.ie, The Belfast Telegraph. Main pic via A House for Maile/Facebook
