UPDATE: Adoption reunion on P.E.I. still going strong

Families remain tight two years later

$['Francis Menard is pictured earlier this year with his birth mother, Melanie Cantwell, left, and his adoptive mother, Martine Chartrand, at his adoptive parentsâ\x80\x99 home in Embrun, Ont. Francis, 24, was reunited with Cantwell and his birth father, Alan MacQuarrie of Crapaud, after an article appeared in The Guardian in July. Menard approached the paper in a last-ditch effort to find his birth parents.']$

FILE PHOTO: Francis Menard is pictured with his birth mother, Melanie Cantwell, left, and his adoptive mother, Martine Chartrand, at his adoptive parents home in Embrun, Ont. Francis, then 24, was reunited with Cantwell and his birth father, Alan MacQuarrie of Crapaud, after an article appeared in The Guardian in July, 2016. Menard approached the paper in a last-ditch effort to find his birth parents. ©THE GUARDIAN - Submitted

Things continue to go very well for Francis Menard and his birth mother as well as their extended families.

Menard reached out to The Guardian in 2016 in a last-ditch effort to find his birth parents in P.E.I.

Within hours of the article going online, Melanie Cantwell, Menard’s birth mother and a native of Charlottetown, reached out to him. What followed was a reunion only writers in Hollywood could think up in terms of how close Cantwell and Menard would get and how close Cantwell would get to the woman who adopted Menard, Martine Chartrand of Embrun, Ont.

“We had the chance again to celebrate Christmas with Melanie,’’ Chartrand told The Guardian via a Facebook message, adding how close they’ve become. “She’s very precious to me.’’

Chartrand went on to say that some people in her life still don’t understand how she can let Cantwell be a part of Menard’s life.

Chartrand said she can’t even fathom the thought of keeping the two apart.

“(Melanie) is part of the family now and forever.’’

In the spring, Menard will spend two months in P.E.I., fishing with his birth father, Alan MacQuarrie of Crapaud.

“Those two together look like they have known each other since always. The bond between them is very special, too.’’