"My life felt as if it had been torn in half, right down the middle like the photograph of their parents that Hallie and Annie piece together in the film. The 11-year-old identical twins (both played by Lindsay Lohan) reunite at summer camp after being separated at birth, and switch places in their plan to reunite their family. My own biological dad had left for good on my second birthday, moving back to Hungary."
"I had pored over photographs in the years since: black-and-white wedding photos where he looked adoringly at my mum, glossy ones of him throwing me in the air. I fantasised about what it would be like to be reunited with this mythical man whom my childish imagination had turned into someone great. Over the years, I received strange gifts from him on birthdays and long, self-pitying letters. When I got Facebook at 15, these messages flooded my inbox."
At six, a child and her mother moved from a one-bedroom council flat to a Victorian terrace in London; a half-sister was born and the child learned to call her stepfather Dad. The child's life felt torn in half, reflected in the photograph that inspired identification with The Parent Trap's twins. The biological father left when the child was two and moved to Hungary, leaving behind cherished photographs and sporadic gifts. Social media revealed more about his life, including other children and the location of conception. Determined to restore identity, the child flew alone to Budapest at 17, expecting cinematic reunion but encountering a different man.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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