When Randy Lee Keever left for Australia with the U.S. Coast Guard in 1967, he had no idea how that trip Down Under would change his life.

In fact, he didn’t find out until 30 years later.

“I was assigned to an icebreaker, a ship for escorting other ships into Antarctica,” said Keever, who lives in Lincolnton.

Keever, who says he was 19 or 20 at the time, traveled all over the world with that Coast Guard ship – to South America, Panama, Hawaii and finally Australia.

In Sydney, he met a local young woman with whom he hit it off.

“We just met each other, like any teenagers of our time,” Keever said. “We went to one of her friend’s house. We went to some clubs and ended up at her friend’s flat.”

As Keever says, one thing led to another.

He was already back in the U.S. when he got a letter from the young woman saying she was with child.

Young and confused as to what he should do, Keever sought the advice of one of his superiors.

“Upon receiving the letter stating she was expecting, I talked to the chief, my boss,” he said.

According to Keever, the chief told him the young woman was just trying to get to America. He told Keever the baby might not even be his, or that there may be no baby at all.

The chief told Keever to throw the letter away. And being young and trusting, Keever did just that.

“I did what he told me to do,” said Keever. “I should have gone on my own intuition, but I didn’t.”

Keever got married in 1968, the same year his daughter Karen was born in Australia, and again in 1977. He never had children with either wife, but always wondered if he was indeed a father.

“Over the years, I kept thinking if I did the right thing,” Keever said.

In an email, Karen Sommers describes how her mother almost gave her up for adoption; times were different then, and having a child out-of-wedlock wasn’t the commonplace practice it is today.

Sommers remembers how “people would literally cross over to the other side of the road to avoid being on the same footpath as my mother.”

She had it no easier, and remembers kids at school being particularly cruel.

According to Sommers, curiosity about her father was something she always carried with her.

“I never made it a secret I wanted to know my biological father,” Sommers wrote. “I cried thinking that I may never know.”

In 1998, Sommers was going through a difficult time in her life.

She sat down at her computer one day and noticed a button called “people finder” on her browser. It was as if a light bulb came on over her head: She would try to find her father.

The “people finder” button took her to switchboard.com, where she typed in the name she had been told was her father’s, Randy L. Keever.

Although several Randy Keevers popped up, only one of them was the right age. His address and phone number were listed.

Both Keever and Sommers remember the phone call like it happened yesterday.

She asked for him, and then asked him questions about the Coast Guard and his being in Australia. She asked if he’d ever known her mother.

“She says, ‘You’re my daddy,’ ” recalls Keever. “She started bawling. The same thing happened to me. I didn’t have a dry eye for a week.”

The experience was equally moving for Sommers.

“If miracles happen then they happened that day,” she wrote.

They talked for about two hours that first time, telling each other about their lives.

She asked if he had any children, and he replied that he had a daughter: her.

Email addresses were exchanged, as well as pictures. Keever was delighted to see a family resemblance in the face of the daughter he almost never knew he had.

“She is the spitting image of my mother,” Keever said. “My mother saw her and the tears rolled. She said it was like looking in a mirror 30 years ago.”

Keever was also thrilled to find out Sommers apparently inherited his talent for art. He took lessons and says he always loved to draw; she once worked as a cartoonist for Hanna-Barbera.

Although father and daughter have yet to meet in person – it’s not cheap to fly from one side of the world to the other – they talk at least once a week and email frequently.

In addition to a daughter, Keever has also gained a son-in-law and three granddaughters. He hopes to meet them all in the near future.

For Keever, getting to know his daughter has been a blessing he never saw coming. After struggling with divorce and an accident that left him disabled, Keever is overjoyed to have a family all his own, even if he hasn’t met them in person yet.

“I went from nothing to that,” he said.

For Sommers, finding her father was the culmination of a lifetime spent wondering about him but never believing her questions would be answered.

She says the experience has restored her faith.

“The only thing to describe how I felt inside is like someone switching on a light, giving me direction.”