PETERSFIELD, Westmoreland — For years, Kerice Daley believed her father, Keith Daley, was dead. Meanwhile, he thought she had migrated and was living far beyond his reach. Then an unexpected chain of events brought them together after the devastation of Hurricane Melissa.

In the weeks following the October 2025 hurricane, Kerice was still grappling with the destruction left behind by the Category 5 storm. It had severely damaged her Petersfield, Westmoreland, home which she had only recently completed after years of sacrifice. But her maternal aunt Melody Allen — who raised her from she was three and in whose catering business she now works — remained hopeful.

“My aunt kept saying to me, ‘Out of evil come forth good.’ And mi a seh, ‘A wah kinda good can come out a dis! Look how Melissa mash up mi house and mi just done it,’ ” Daley lamented.

“She say, ‘Kerice, the house is going to be bigger and better.’ And to be honest, mi meet mi father and mi family dem, mi d’even memba seh house did mash up,” she said.

The remarkable turn of events began in December when Kerice received a call from a neighbour informing her that assessors had arrived to examine the damage to her property and wanted to speak with her.

“The lady [the assessor] say she not leaving until I come,” Kerice recalled. “She say to me, ‘You know I didn’t plan on coming to Westmoreland this morning enuh, but something keep on pulling me down here.’ ”

After completing the assessment the official began writing her report. During the conversation, the assessor noticed Kerice’s last name.

“She asked me, ‘Yuh last name a Daley? Mi name Daley too, enuh. Weh yuh Daley dem come from?’ ”

Kerice’s response was simple and painful.

“To be honest, I don’t know any of my Daleys. I don’t know my father, I don’t know anybody,” she said.

Kerice then shared her father’s name, and the assessor replied that she had an uncle by that name. When Kerice mentioned the only address she knew for her father, the assessor realised something extraordinary: She was currently living at that very address.

The celebration started.

In the days that followed Daley received several phone calls, the first of which came from a lady who introduced herself as her aunt.

“‘Yuh name Kerice? Yuh madda name Melissa Allen weh use to live a St Ann?’ I said. ‘Yes,’ ” Kerice recalled. “She say, ‘Alright, wi a family. Mi soon call yuh back.’ ”

Later that night Kerice received a call from her brother on her father’s side. Their conversations continued over the next three days. In-between, she received a number for her father and decided to make the call that would change her life.

“When I called, he asked, ‘A who dis yah?’ I said, ‘It’s your long-lost daughter.’ ”

His response stunned her.

“Him seh, ‘Kerice Sheryl Daley.’ I said, ‘How you know mi name?’ He said, ‘Den nuh mi name yuh. A mi gi yuh di name! A mi aunty weh come from England give mi fi gi yuh.’ ”

For Keith, the call was the answer to a search that had lasted decades. He told his daughter he had been trying to find her all her life. The last information he received was that she and her mother had gone to live overseas.

“Mi never guh pon a plane from mi born,” Kerice told him.

Within days, the family reunions escalated. Kerice first connected with her sister, who lives in Darliston, Westmoreland. By the weekend, she travelled to Kingston to meet her father for the first time.

Now their bond is growing stronger each day.

“My father call me at least three times per day,” she said. “Him say him nuh waan lose another moment because him lose enough already.”

Keith later confirmed the account to the Jamaica Observer.

“When she come mi tell her everything, man, cause mi nuh fraid,” he said.

Keith explained that the decision to keep Kerice away from him was not due to any failing on his part as a father, but rather a choice made by the child’s mother after their relationship ended when she was nine months pregnant.

Despite the years of separation, he expressed deep joy and gratitude at finally being reunited with his child.

Kerice has gained even more than she ever dreamed of when she longed to learn about the man who fathered her. She now has siblings and an entire side of her family she never knew before. The second of three of her father’s children, Kerice has already started bonding with her siblings who have known about her existence all their lives.

“I lose everything,” she said, “but I have not been sad about anything since I found my father.”

Since their reunion, Keith has been there for her and her sons, ages six and 10.

“The father of the 10-year-old died when the child was three years old and the six-year-old’s father does not pay him much mind,” Kerice shared. “But my father has opted to help me with them. I told him he does not have to, but he insists.”

Keith has promised to give the boys two goats he has on his farm. He is busy making up for all the years he missed being a father to Kerice and grandfather to her children.

Keith Daley spent years searching for his daughter, Kerice. He and his other children searched social media daily but even encounters with his daughter’s maternal relatives proved a dead end. (Photo: Rosalee Wood Condell)

One room was rebuilt after Hurricane Melissa demolished Kerice Daley’s house. The room now provides shelter for a needy neighbour who also lost his home while Daley and her children stay with her aunt who raised her, Melody Allen. (Photo: Rosalee Wood Condell)

Kerice Daley lost everything to Hurricane Melissa but finding her father and discovering she has siblings and many other relatives has made the loss a bit easier to bear. (Photo: Rosalee Wood Condell)