FRESHMAN MEETS BIOLOGICAL HALF-S IBLINGS FATHER AND 17 WORDS Alex Petry / / PHOTOS 7athan Mayes When freshman Nathan Mayes was a senior in high school, he set out on a journey to do something he never thought possible: meet his biological father. Mayes' mother, Laura Hutchison, and Mayes' father were unable to conceive naturalJy, so Hutchison turned to artificial insemination via a sperm donor. Hutchison used a cryobank in California to conceive both Mayes and his sister. The cryobank told her that the documents and files regarding their biological father would be sealed, and the children would never know who the donor was. However, during his senior year of high school, Mayes decided to attempt to find his donor. Mayes began his search by reaching out to the cq·obank in California, but hit a wall when the cryobank refused to cooperate with his search. "I called the cryobank over and over again, and there was no answer," Mayes said. "They were just very hard to reach. Finally, a woman at the cryobank contacted me back weeks later and said that [the donorl wanted to be anonymous, which wasn't true." Eventually, Mayes was able to convince the cryobank to pass on a letter he had written to his donor, and that was when he was finally able to meet his biological father, Michael Rubino. "I wa particularly moved by athan's letter to me," Rubino said. "In it, he described his faith, his love of travel and football, but I was particularly intrigued by his declared passion for art, as I am, myself, an arti t by trade. A sense of strong connection was immediate." Mayes wa · encouraged br his mother to go out to California to meet Rubino, noting that she felt this relationship was something that Mayes needed. "I was nervous and thrilled for athan." Hutchison said. " athan had a deep desire to know where he came from. His artwork continued to show the longing and need to know the missing Link to his Life." And so, over the summer before his freshman year, Mayes flew out to California to meet Rubino, as well as his 17 half-siblings that had also been conceived via artificial insemination. The meeting of the siblings and Rubino was documented by People Magazine and Inside Edition, and, although Mayes said that he was worried about the outcome of the meeting, he felt incredibly blessed to know all of the people to which he felt such a strong connection. "I was kind of dreading it, just because I didn't know these kids," Mayes said. "I was worried they would be so different than me, but then we met and realized there were a lot of similarities. They're just a lot of very, very good kids from all over the tares." Since meeting over the summer, iayes and Rubino formed a strong bond, despite Living very different Lifestyles. "In some ways, we could not be more different," Rubino said. "His religious and political views are polar opposites to my own. Yet, in ways that l am still trying to figure out, he is the piece of a puzzle that I didn't realize I'd been missing. He is an unusually kind and considerate kid, and I could n t be more proud of a son." Freshman Nathan Mayes, seventh from the left on the back row, meets his biological father and 17 half-siblings for the first time in California on July 30, 2017. Mayes' biological father Michael Rubino was a sperm donor who invited Mayes to visit h;m in California 1n summer 2017. // Photo courtesy of Nathan Mayes Mayes shows his art work called "A Son's Journey" on Jan 26, 2018. Mayes created this piece to describe his experience of finding his biological father. // Photo by Kazu Fujisawa
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