BY David Mitchell

DENVER — After being separated for nearly 50 years, a father and son were finally reunited in Denver Friday.

Carl Beasley had been waiting for this moment for a long time. Along with his daughter Betty, they were nervous and sentimental. “I know I’m going to cry, I’m about ready to cry now,” she said.

Hard times separated Carl from his son Paul 49 years ago.

“Him and his mom went one way and I went the other.”

Cut off by distance and time, the two never connected as young Paul became a man. “It’s hard growing up with your friends and they got dads and stuff — and you don’t have a dad.”

Paul’s sister, Betty, tried to find him using social media for quite some time. The two finally connected on Facebook.

After a trip from Phoenix, Paul met his dad for the first time in almost 50 years. “This is the greatest feeling in the world. I’ve been wanting this all my life. I don’t have no words for it. I’m just blessed … that I’m sitting here with my dad after all these years.”

Paul has five other siblings to reconnect with, not counting his sister Betty. You can imagine he has a lot to catch up on.

Heartwarming! In any circumstance like this, it is impossible to make up for the loss of time, guidance and support that this son suffered – but if it helps this son to try break the cycle of dad absence with his own children, and with his newly found nieces and nephews and his five other siblings whom he has never met, then at least there will be some hope that the next generation of children in this family will value the need to involve future fathers in the lives of their own children.