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 GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- An elderly Grand Rapids man has finally met his son. 
 
 The man had tried having kids all his life, but thought it was a life goal he never accomplished. 
 
 "He's my full son that I've had my whole life, but why my wife hid that letter is beyond me." 
 
 A letter was sent by the child's mother more than 50 years ago that told him of his then 5-year-old son. That man is now 61-years-old. 
 
 It was a message believed to have been hidden by his wife for decades. 
 
 Tony Trapani, 81, said that after his wife passed away, he was cleaning out one of her old filing cabinets when he came across the letter. 
 
 Father and son only met for the first time Sunday, and Trapani said he feels like a new dad. 
 
 Samuel Childress was finally able to meet his father for the first time. 
 
 "I always asked my mom, I said, 'Well what does he look like?' She said, 'Well, go look in the mirror.'" 
 
 The letter sent by Samuel's mother back in 1959 is postage stamped on that date. 
 
 "I have a little boy," it reads. "He is five years old now. What I'm trying to say Tony is he is your son. He was born November 13th, 1953." 
 
 Childress said that his mother told him that she had sent the letter, but figured his father was ignoring him. 
 
 Trapani claims that his wife at the time intercepted the letter and hid it in a filing cabinet for decades while the couple couldn't conceive a child on their own. 
 
 "Why my wife didn't tell me," said Trapani. "I don't know. She wanted children. She couldn't have any. She tried and tried." 
 
 "He's my full son that I've had my whole life, but why my wife hid that letter is beyond me." 
 
 Childress said that while growing up, it was his understanding that his father got the letter, but didn't want anything to do with him. He grew up in Pennsylvania, and meeting his father was just a distant thought. 
 
 "Just to know him now is so important to me. It's going to fill that void," he said. 
 
 Father and son are now catching up on a lifetime of memories, making the most out of the time they have left, knowing they can't go back in time or dwell on the secret that kept them apart for so long. 
 
 The family is also planning to have a paternity test done just to be 100 percent sure. ||||| P.S. You’ve had a son for 61 years. 
 
 A man in Grand Rapids, Mich. last year learned about a son he never met after finding a letter his wife hid for decades. 
 
 The two finally met on Monday and are catching up on their better-late-than-never bond. 
 
 Tony Trapani, 81, told WXMI he found the letter when he was cleaning out his wife’s filing cabinets after her death. 
 
 The life-changing letter was sent to him more than 50 years ago from the mother of Tony’s then-unknown son, Samuel Childress. 
 
 “I have a little boy. He is five years old now. What I’m trying to say Tony is he is your son,” the long-lost lover wrote in the 1959 letter. 
 
 Childress, now 61, said his mother told him she sent the letter but she figured Trapani just ignored it. He grew up in Pennsylvania thinking his father never wanted to meet him. 
 
 The unexpected new dad now says his wife must have intercepted it and stashed it in the filing cabinet. The two of them, meanwhile, were unable to have their own children. 
 
 “He’s my full son that I’ve had my whole life,” Trapani tearfully told WMXI. “But why my wife hid that letter is beyond me.” 
 
 The letter remained hidden for more than 50 years after Tony Trapani's late wife hid it in a filing cabinet. (WXMI) 
 
 The family is planning a paternity test, just to make sure the belated bombshell in the letter is legit. 
 
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– An elderly man who's wanted kids his whole life just learned that he's had one—for 61 years. Tony Trapani and his wife tried for years to have their own children, and when he was cleaning out her filing cabinets after her recent death, he discovered a bombshell of a letter from another woman mailed in 1959: "I have a little boy. He is five years old now. What I'm trying to say Tony is he is your son," the woman wrote. Now Trapani, who's 81 and lives in Grand Rapids, Mich., has met his 61-year-old son, Samuel Childress, who grew up in Pennsylvania assuming his father didn't want to know him, reports the New York Daily News. "He's my full son that I've had my whole life, but why my wife hid that letter is beyond me," Trapani tells Fox 17. "I don't know. She wanted children. She couldn't have any. She tried and tried." Chimes in Childress, "Just to know him now is so important to me—it's going to fill that void." They do, however, plan to perform a paternity test to be sure that the big news is more than just a good story. (Speaking of long-lost relatives, this 18-year-old plans to marry her father, with whom she recently reunited.)