Man befriended a coworker of 2 years on Facebook — only to discover he was actually his father
Nathan Boos had always known he was adopted, but he never imagined his biological father would turn out to be a coworker.
Two men in Wisconsin discovered they were father and son after working together for two years at the same trucking company. Nathan Boos, from Chippewa Falls, always knew he was adopted. "Growing up, I always knew that I was adopted," Boos told CBS47 KSEE24. "It just never crossed my mind that I’d ever find my parents." He was adopted right at birth out of Marshfield, Wisconsin, and said he went through his entire life without knowing anything about his biological parents. His adoptive parents knew who they were, but since he never asked, they never told him, until one day his adoptive mother told him that he was friends with his biological dad on Facebook.
"My mom just happened to come by one day and said, 'Well, you’re friends with your dad on Facebook," Boos recalled. She pulled up his friends list and brought up a picture of one of his colleagues. When he saw the picture, he said in shock, "Get out of here." That colleague was Bob Degaro, a fellow truck driver at Rock Solid Transport in Chippewa Falls. Boos had been working alongside Degaro for the past two years without realizing they were related.
Degaro remembered the moment he got the message from Boos. "I see you messaged me on Facebook one day and asked me if I knew his biological mother, and I’m like, 'Yeah, that’s my ex-wife," he said. "About fell out of my seat. I’m like, 'Oh my God." Degaro, who has two other children with his ex-wife, explained that placing Boos for adoption had been a painful decision brought on by financial struggles. "Back then, I wasn’t much of a dad," he admitted, "His biological mom had chosen the adoptive parents. Like he said, because they were somewhat related, distant cousins I believe. But I didn’t know that." Both men described how shocking it was to find out the truth after working together for so long.
"Well, it’s still kind of a shock, Ellen. And there are days I’m not sure exactly what to say or how to act. He is my son, but we didn’t have that father-son relationship growing up, and then we became working partners before we knew who we really were," Degaro admitted in the interview. Boos agreed the discovery was surreal. That kind of reaction is completely natural considering what researchers have found in studies of adoptees reconnecting with birth families. A 2024 study published in Taylor & Francis Online analyzed 15 cases of adopted adults who reunited with their biological relatives over a 10-year period. It found that while reunions often brought joy and closure, they also carried challenges, ranging from emotional shock to mismatched expectations.
The study noted that adoptees and birth parents alike had to navigate identity shifts and redefine relationships after decades apart, a process that doesn’t end with the first meeting but unfolds over time. For Boos and Degaro, the focus now is on moving forward with the relationship they already had and building on it as a family. "We’re just taking one day at a time, one mile at a time, as they say," Boos said.
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