111-Year-Old Man Reunites with Family After Disappearing for 66 Years

A 111-year-old Ugandan man who mysteriously disappeared from his home in 1957 when he was 45 has resurfaced after 66 years.

Patrice Okubal from the Iteso community returned to his ancestral home of Guyaguya Village in Soroti District, where he was reunited with his family, Daily Monitor reports.

The family slaughtered a cow and goat and held thanksgiving prayers to celebrate the centenarian’s return. He came home in the company of his clan members from Bukwo District, who have been taking care of him over the years.

Okubal, who had sired five children before his disappearance, was welcomed by only two of his remaining children, Pascal Awojat, 66 and Rupina Amongin, 70, together with 139 grandchildren.

The man is believed to have left his home after reportedly losing his fortune to a gambling game, where he gradually staked his family wealth to the extent of including his wife.

His last-born son Ajowat said that after his father lost the bet, gamblers approached his Clan members seeking to be given his late mother Berite Olinga as their due.

Awojat explained that his clan together with his late elder brothers beat up the father for offering their mother as a stake in a gambling sport.

“It is then that he mysteriously disappeared from home in protest, I was being breastfed, he left us with our mother Berite Olinga, she died in 2003,” Awojat said.

His return ended their desperate search, which they admitted to having already given up more than 10 years ago.

“We tried but along the way, we literally shelved any search. All that mattered was our own survival,” teary Okubal’s daughter Amongin said.

Robert Kapsandui Zik from the Bukwo family said Okubal has been disguising himself as Odeke throughout the years and neither engaged in any relationship nor had any other children.