The emotional story of a woman who found a relative after a dialogue overheard by mistake

Eileen Monaghan lives in the US, where her grandmother immigrated from Shalvey, Ireland in the late 1800s. Young Eileen loved her grandmother’s stories about Ireland and became fascinated by her Irish roots. When her cousin, Nora, died in 2014, Eileen suffered not only the loss of a relative, but also her last connection to Ireland, notes CNN.

Eileen learned that Nora had died when an unopened Christmas card was returned to her with the word “deceased” written on the envelope.

The following year, 2015, Eileen celebrated her 70th birthday with a trip aboard the Queen Elizabeth cruise ship.

One evening, the woman’s husband, Gerard, was in the elevator and overheard the conversation of a couple sitting next to him. They looked Irish, which intrigued Gerard, so he decided to strike up a conversation. That’s how he found out that the family came from the same area of ​​Ireland where his wife had roots.

The Irish couple introduced themselves as Paddy and Hazel McEvoy. They all realized that Eileen and Paddy were cousins ​​who had never met but were to be reunited unexpectedly on a cruise ship in the middle of the ocean.

Eileen was initially in shock when she met Paddy. The unexpected family gathering turned into a several-hour conversation about family, nationality and everything in between.

In the remaining two weeks of the cruise, the two cousins ​​and their partners were inseparable.

“We met every day of the cruise after that and got to know each other,” Hazel recalls.

At that time, the four were all between 60 and 70 years old. It turned out that both couples had children living in Boston. They all, especially Paddy and Gerard, like to debate history, religion and politics. All four love to travel and have already started making plans for future family get-togethers.

At the end of the cruise, McEvoy and the Monaghans exchanged contact details, promising to stay in touch. Paddy and Hazel would then head to the US to visit their son. When, in one of their many post-cruise e-mail exchanges, they mentioned the upcoming trip, Eileen and Gerard immediately invited their Irish relatives to visit them in Connecticut.

Paddy recalls that his American daughter-in-law was particularly wary of the whole situation, but the visit went smoothly and the bond made during the cruise seemed even stronger.

Eileen and Gerard came back to visit later in the year, and since then the couples have become even closer.

They’ve had adventures in Ireland, trips to Eileen and Gerard’s second home in Vermont, and group vacations—and their sons in Boston enjoy seeing each other, too.