Lost is found

Troy Smith, left, poses with his grandson Miles Palacio and son Tyler Palacio. Palacio found out Smith is his biological father through 23andMe and met him for the first time on this trip to Larned, Kansas, where Smith lives with his family.

Tyler Palacios thought the phone call was in regard to Husker tickets he had posted for sale on Facebook.

But when he answered the phone, the voice on the other end told him something totally unexpected.

Palacios had lived 31 years without knowing who his dad was, and that all changed in a moment.

“I did 23andMe to see what would happen and was hitting a lot of dead ends — large family — and I kind of gave up on it,” Palacios said. “I got a Facebook message from somebody named Troy Smith and he said, ‘Get ahold of me.’ I got ahold of him and he said, ‘I just did 23andMe and I’m your dad.’”

“I’m like, wow,” Palacios said. “He found me and is very excited about it. So the next day we drove down to Larned, Kansas, where he is from and met him.”

Palacios said he has been asking about his dad his entire life.

“I never knew my dad, was never really involved with my mom.” Palacios said. “I was raised by my grandma in Garden City, Kansas, until I was 12. I moved in with friends after that and was pretty much on my own after that.”

His mom didn’t share many details about when she became pregnant with him.

“Nobody had answers for me; nobody knew anything but my mom,” Palacios said, and she didn’t seem to remember much about that time of her life.

“I always wondered where I got everything from,” Palacios said. “She has always been very coy about it, not wanting to talk about it. Everything was kind of awkward.”

He said that put a strain on their relationship and more so after Palacios and his wife, Missy, had a child of their own — Miles, who is now 7 years old.

“It was definitely a God thing, no question,” Troy Smith said. “I believe God has a purpose for everything.”

Palacios said his dad has Parkinson’s disease, and their finding each other came as a result of a fundraiser Smith was involved in last summer.

“I did the Bike Across Kansas called Parkinson’s Across Kansas as a fundraiser for the Michael J. Fox Foundation,” Smith said. “They offered me a free 23andMe profile to look for genetic markers for Parkinson’s for possible treatments.”

Smith said he checked the box next to question about whether he wanted to make his results public, and that opened the door. Near the end of September he received the results and they indicated he had a son.

“I was here on the couch watching ‘King of the Hill’ and enjoying a cup of coffee,” Smith said. “I paused the show and just stared at the message for a few minutes.”

Smith sent a message to Palacios through Facebook.

“Hey, this is Troy Smith of Larned, Kansas, call me,” Smith said. “I asked him, did you do 23andMe? He said, ‘yeah.’ ‘Well, I’m your dad.’”

Palacios was ready to get in the car right then and go to Larned, Smith said.

Smith said perhaps finding his son because of Parkinson’s was the way God turned a negative into a positive for him and his family.

“After 30 years out of high school, I had no idea,” Smith said. “I lived my life and all of a sudden I have a new family: Tyler, his wife and my grandson — wow.”

Tyler discovered he has two sisters who always wanted a brother.

“My daughters always said, give us a baby brother, give us a baby brother,” Smith said. “It didn’t quite work out that way, but now ...”

He said his family is excited and the town of Larned has shared the joy with them.

“Our community has just been awesome,” Smith said. “Everywhere I go, the pharmacy, everybody just, they almost cry, go to tears over this.”

The way the connection happened was nothing short of a miracle, both Palacios and Smith said.

“It was all just too much,” Palacios said. “When you see the pictures, the resemblance is just ridiculous.”

The interesting part for both of them is how a disease actually brought them together.

“Just because of Parkinson’s,” Palacios said. “He’s like, ‘yeah, Parkinson’s got me a son’ technically — science.”

Plans are being made to get together with aunts and uncles Palacios has never met.

“He’s going to come down on Thanksgiving for a day or two and meet the rest of the family,” Smith said. “ It’s going to be a bit overwhelming I’m sure, but we’re all excited.”

Palacios said it all makes him feel different.

“It’s just really, really weird that all this is happening,” Palacios said. “My feet haven’t hit the ground yet I don’t think.”