In a meeting so remarkable that it could have been engineered by the Wizard of Oz an Australian minister and the son he gave up for adoption 27 years ago find out they work in the same building.
Health Minister Tony Abbott said he was ÔflabbergastedÕ when he was contacted by Daniel O'Connor, the boy he and his teenage girlfriend forsook in 1977.
When he realised they had been working close by in parliament, occasionally even in touching distance he thought to himself ÔWhat do you know? Truth is stranger than fictionÕ.
Abbott said he had fathered the child when he was a 19-year-old student but gave him up for adoption because he Ôjust wasn't ready for parenthoodÕ.
The minister, who is married and has three daughters, now hopes to take advantage of the magical Christmas reunion by getting closer to his newfound son, a sound recordist for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
OÕConnor told reporters he had got in touch with his biological parents through an adoption agency.
Two days after he made contact with his biological mother, well-known artist Kathy Donnelly, on Christmas Eve he went to visit his Tony.
Andrew Zilouf
Magical Land of Oz Reunion
An Australian minister shares more in common with his long lost son than he could have imagined.
