Mix 102.3 Breakfast host, Ali Clarke, revealed on air to her hosts Shane Lowe and Cosi who is filling in for Honeymooning Max Burford, a visit to her birth dad’s grave site.
The visit to Goodna Cemetery in Brisbane ended in grief for Ali Clarke and her mum Mary Carle, as they sadly found his unmarked grave.
Mix 102.3 listeners have been taken on a journey over the last fortnight as the Ali Clarke Breakfast Show has been working with one of Australia’s top private investigators to help her find out more about her birth father.
Ali discovered her birth father Philip Joseph McManus died, aged 39, in Brisbane in 1987, and now hopes to find any other children he may have had along with unknown aunties and uncles.
Tearful Ali said, “When you turn up to a cemetery and there are beautifully cared for plots, but then just a piece of grass for him, it is easy just to think that nobody cared.”
“Just to find something that maybe had his name on it would have been good, maybe I should have cared sooner and I worry now that maybe there wasn’t anyone there to look after him, or care and maintain the grave.”
Ali revealed to listeners a fortnight ago that never knowing her birth father is one of the biggest secrets, “I have never talked about this, I don’t know anything about my biological dad and his family, or if I have brothers or sisters.”
Ali continues, “All I know about my birth dad is that mum left him, and the only other real memory I have is in primary school, one day my mum told me he had passed away. We never spoke about it again, I don’t even know if there was a funeral.”
Listen to the audio from the show here.