Daughter Believes Father Died Of Heart Attack - Until She Finds Him Alive And Well 26 Years Later

Dec 04, 2018 by apost team

As the holiday season approaches and family members who don’t typically see one another reunite, we are reminded that, very often, family dynamics are fraught with emotion and complications. As time hurries on and lives grow more and more complex, families that were once as close as pine needles slowly drift apart.

The story of the Rudolph family is exemplary of the importance of keeping in touch with the people that matter most in your lives. 72-year-old Ronnie Rudolph moved to Tennessee after he separated from his wife. Working at a concrete plant, Ronnie would often get phone calls from his daughter Janie at work.

Janie would call her father every so often to catch up and see what Ronnie was doing with his free time. Janie was heartbroken when she called the plant one day and was told of Ronnie’s death.

Speaking with WTVF, Janie said that the voice on the other line told her that Ronnie had been sick for a while and had died of a heart attack. Stunned, Janie told reporters that she took the news at face value. Moving from place to place as she struggled with finances and raised a family of her own, Janie was unable to investigate Ronnie’s death.

Most of Janie’s family accepted the news of Ronnie’s death as well. Having grown apart over the years and started lives of their own, nobody in the Rudolph family thought to look into Ronnie’s death.

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Shockingly, Ronnie was still very much alive, living in Tennessee. Although he never suffered a heart attack, two strokes left Ronnie with difficulty speaking. For 26 years Ronnie never tried to contact his family, convinced that they had started their own lives and didn’t want to see him. When Janie’s mother died earlier this year, Janie began looking for Ronnie’s death certificate.

Unable to find anything, Janie began wondering if her father was really dead after all. Searching in earnest for any trace of Ronnie, Janie finally found him in Lebanon, Tennessee, where he resided with a friend. On seeing her father again, Janie thought she had strayed into a dream. The shock quickly faded into joy as the two embraced with tears in their eyes.

Finally reunited with his family after 26 long years, Ronnie also got the chance to reconnect with his older sister, Juanita Elliot. The brother and sister had not seen each other since 1992 when they attended their father’s funeral. When asked how it felt to be reunited with his family, Ronnie said simply, “it feels good.”

What do you think of Ronnie and Janie’s story? Do you need to reconnect with someone in your family? Let us know your experiences in the comments and pass this article along to your friends and family to let them know you'll always be there for them!