IT was the moment Donna Wateridge thought would never happen - after more than 50 years she finally felt the arms of her father wrapped around her.

Separated from her dad Benjamin Franklin Morrow Junior at the age of two, Mrs Wateridge, now 58, had longed for the day she would see him again.

Her quest to find her father was to take her across the Atlantic where she would discover not only her father and a family she never knew she had but also hear the story of her parents' wartime romance.

Clutching her father's arm, and staring up into his face - which bears a similarity to her own - Donna can hardly believe her father is now sat next to her in her Southampton home.

Speaking about her decision to look for him, Donna said: "I just did not feel complete, like there was a piece of me missing. I knew that there was a possibility of a new family in another country, I just wanted that last piece of the jigsaw to fall into place and then my life would be complete."

Retelling her story of the separation and the long-awaited reunion to the Daily Echo, Donna described how her mother Connie met Benjamin during the Second World War. He was stationed in Winchester for a short time and her mother and other girls from Southampton attended a dance which was organised for the American servicemen.

It was a classic tale of love at first sight and Connie became Benjamin's GI bride.

Fell in love "They fell in love and got married here in Southampton before having me and my younger brother Barry. I was born in Spartanburg in America but then we all moved back to Southampton. Unfortunately my parents' marriage broke up and he returned to the US and we stayed here with our mother," said Donna.

Benjamin returned to his home town of Spartan-burg when Donna was just two years old and never saw or heard from them because of the complicated break-up.

Clearly still emotional, Mr Morrow recalls the hardship of severing contact with his young family. He said: "I did not try to get in touch with my children in England because I thought it was best not to interfere in their lives but I thought about them every day and kept a picture of them by my bed every night."

Donna's father was never spoken about and when her mother re-married Donna tried to forget about her father out of respect for her stepfather.

She added: "I had very little recollection of my father but I knew my mother had a box full of photos of him, but she would never talk about him. I always wondered where he was and what he was doing but my stepfather brought us up like his own so I didn't feel it was right to try to find my real dad."

Donna's mother died a few years ago and went to her grave with the story of how she met and fell in love with her father.

As her stepfather had also died Donna, a grandmother of two, decided to try to find her real dad with the help of husband Ron, 55.

The search began in her birthplace in South Carolina. Mrs Wateridge said: "We looked up everyone with the name Morrow in the local directory and called every single one but none of them was my father."

Undeterred, the couple, who run a successful vegetable business, continued the quest to find her real father.

Ron then searched for Mr Morrow's name on the Internet and it brought up the details of a Ruth Morrow who had died in America and was the same age as Donna's father should have been.

The find sparked a sequence of events that led them to a local newspaper in Greenville, a village near Spartanburg, that had a record of a Benjamin Franklin Morrow Junior who had placed an obituary in the paper for his wife.

Ron said: "They gave me the telephone number and without telling Donna, I just called the number and somebody answered."

After a brief conversation it was obvious Ron had the right man.

Then the moment came for Donna to speak to him.

Very emotional She said: "It was very emotional. It was like we had known each other for years. We just wanted to know everything we could about each other."

The race was then on for the pair to see each other as it meant both of them having to apply for passports and see whose came through first.

Donna, of High Road, Swaythling, said: "I had to wait a week for my passport so I sent my dad some recent photos of me and the family and a little bear which he could keep with him if he needed to be close to me.

"Then less than two weeks after speaking to him, me and Ron were on a plane to South Carolina."

Mr Morrow, now 81, awaited the arrival of his long-lost daughter at Greenville Airport clutching a single red rose in his hand.

He said: "It was very emotional and there was a lot of tears. It was very touching holding her for the first time."

Donna insisted her father come back with them to Southampton to meet the rest of his new family including grandchildren Lee and Kerry and great-grandchildren Georgia, 1, and Taylor, 7, which he did.

Donna has also discovered she has a half-brother, Marshall, 52, who also has his own family whom she hopes to meet on a return visit to the US next year.

Wiping away tears and sitting next to his daughter who has not stopped holding onto her father throughout the telling of story, Mr Morrow said: "This is the best Christmas present I could have had."