Michael Goessling met michael mcdonald on his 58th birthday, then learned the musician was his biological father. The St. Louis man had been adopted as an infant by Paul Goessling and Kay Goessling, and the reunion came after a 23andMe DNA match pulled the family history into the open.
58 and a 23andMe match
Within 36 hours, a half-brother who took a 23andMe DNA test received an email identifying Michael Goessling as a half-brother in St. Louis. Goessling said, “Within 36 hours, he got an email notifying him: Michael Goessling, half-brother, St. Louis,” and added, “And that’s how this all began.”
He had always known he was adopted. “Always knew I was adopted,” Goessling said, and he said of Paul Goessling and Kay Goessling, “Had a wonderful childhood. I could not pick two finer folks to raise me.” That matters here because the search did not come from rejection; it came from a decades-old gap finally being filled by DNA.
Michael McDonald on the phone
On his 58th birthday, Goessling met his birth mother in person. Later, he spoke with his biological father on the phone, asked, “Are you Michael McDonald?” and heard, “Yeah, I’m afraid so.” The musician is known for the Doobie Brothers and three songs: “What a Fool Believes,” “This Is It,” and “I Keep Forgettin’ (Every Time You’re Near).”
McDonald said he and Goessling’s biological mother had always talked about him, and that the central fear was how life had treated him. “I always carried that guilt with me,” he said, before adding that learning Goessling had a good life was “a great reward.” For readers tracking the family path, the key sequence is simple: a half-brother’s DNA result led to contact, contact led to a birthday meeting, and that led to a phone call that identified McDonald.
Bear hug in person
Michael McDonald and Michael Goessling later met in person. Goessling said, “When he first saw me, he put his arms out, gave me a big old bear hug, and told me he loved me, and I told him the same.”
McDonald said, “Yeah, I’m still wrapping my head around that,” when asked about being a grandfather, and he called Goessling’s adoptive parents “The real rock stars in this story.” The reunion leaves one practical thread unresolved for the reader: how the half-brother’s 23andMe result moved from a DNA notice to a full family identification so quickly, even as the relationship itself is now out in the open.
