Anyone who read Saturday's main STAR story about Donovan Francis' quest to find his daughter, ought to have been touched.

It is not only that his desire to see Tiffany Rene Solomon is not the standard fare in a situation where it seems there are so many single mothers who would well do with the father of their child or children around, but also the circumstances under which the child was conceived.

As Francis said, when he fathered Tiffany he and the child's mother were 14 and he was then a ward of a boy's home.

Now, he just wants to see the 18-year-old child he never knew and be a father and friend to her, which is very commendable.

However, as he says Tiffany was probably given up for adoption, there is potentially a problem if she really was and has developed a parent/sibling bond with her adopted parents. There is sure to be at least some disruption of what has come to be normal life or, at worst, a total restructuring of emotional connections, which can be heart-rending in itself.

There is a lesson in the circumstances, though, that the developing years of a child are irreplaceable, no matter the efforts to compensate afterwards. In this case, of course, the gap did not come about because of the father's negligence. But those parents who have the chance to be a part of their children's lives but are passing up on the opportunity are well advised to look at this situation and be a part of their children's lives.