Albanese on 'extraordinary' moment he met the dad he thought was dead
Labor politician Anthony Albanese has detailed having his world turned upside-down by the revelation that the Italian father he believed had died in a car crash, was still alive.
Albanese then set about the tough task of tracking down the father he had never known, finally meeting him in an emotional get together, he told ABC's 7.30.
As a child, Albanese was told by his mother his father had died in a car crash, after they had met overseas and got married.
When Albanese was 15, his mother finally told him the truth and revealed that his father could still be alive.
“We sat down just after dinner one night and she [my mother] — it was very traumatic for her, I think, to tell me that in fact that wasn't the case, that my father might still be alive, that she'd met him overseas, fallen pregnant with me, had told him and he had said, basically, that he was betrothed to someone from the town in Italy where he was from,” Albanese said.
ALSO READ: Albanese rallies to keep Syd art college
It would be several decades until Albanese decided to seek out his father. He was armed with limited details, such as his father’s name, Carlo Albanese, and that he was Italian, plus the name of the ship which his parents had met aboard, the Fairsky.
Despite the “needle in a haystack” search, the contact details for Carlo Albanese were found through the ship company.
Albanese wrote a letter to his father's family, explaining he was Maryanne's son, but not mentioning he was Carlo's son.
A lawyer for the family responded and they agreed to meet in an Italian town called Barletta. Albanese said he arrived at the lawyer's office to meet his father and told 7.30 of the “extraordinary” moment of seeing his father for the first time.
“The bell rung ... and the door opened, he walked in and opened his arms to me and we embraced.”
After a series of letters, Albanese also said he learnt he had a brother and sister.
"So all of a sudden with the exception of my son, Nathan, the three closest blood relatives to me in the world who I had never met were standing in this room."
Carlos died from cancer in January 2014 but Albanese got to say goodbye on a visit to Italy in 2013.
"During the 2013 election campaign Kevin Rudd knew that at any time I might depart to farewell him," Albanese said of seeing his father for the last time.
