If you haven’t visited my previous post about my adoption and the journey to find my biological family then it will be difficult to understand what a major breakthrough this is.
As those of you who have been following my journey will know, the family of my biological mother’s brother cut off communication with me once they discovered that my biological father wasn’t who they thought he was.
I may never know why and it makes little difference now anyway because the family of my mother’s daughter (my half-sister) and I have been communicating back and forth for the past ten days.
My sister, Suzzane, was born the year before my birth and her father was the man first thought to be my biological father: Melvyn Everett Hansen. According to records I’ve seen online, my mother and Mr Hansen had separated and divorced before I was conceived. That aside, my DNA results are conclusive and he wasn’t my biological father.
After my birth and adoption my mother remarried and Suzanne was adopted by my mother’s new husband. I’ll leave Suzanne’s story until after I’ve had a chance to speak with her three daughters and one son during the ZOOM meeting we’re in the process of setting up. Her story is as convoluted as mine, but I want to make sure it’s OK to share .
Using what scant information I could uncover using Google and various public records I was able to discover my sister’s name and after a lot of false starts and a very steep learning curve I discovered her married name and an address. I composed a letter I hoped wouldn’t be confronting and mailed it.
Around six months passed and I’d given up hope of ever hearing anything back when the letter was returned, unopened, and stamped by the US postal service as being “Undeliverable.”
While getting to know my fraternal family better I put that quest on the back burner until I started this book/blog and decided to do some further investigative work online. I found a new address, amended the letter somewhat and mailed the new letter earlier this year.
Around ten days ago I received a Facebook message and friend request from my nephew in Maryland letting me know the family had received the letter and that they’d be in touch soon. He’d just wanted me to know as quickly as possible that they’d received it.
Since then I’ve been in regular contact with a niece and we’ve exchanged a lot of information that has been enlightening for both of us. I won’t go into all that now because it’s a developing situation and I don’t want to share anything here that they don’t approve of first.
A major part of The Mother Mystery has been solved because my niece sent me photos of both my mother and my sister, and it was quite an emotional experience to see, for the fist time, photos of my mother and sister.
There will be more to come once we’ve had our ZOOM meeting and gotten to know each other better. And even though setting up ZOOM and getting the webcam and microphone in working order is yet another learning curve to be climbed I’m excited about the next phase of the journey.
Neverending story © Robert R. Feigel 2022 – All Rights Reserved
Pieces from a Puzzling Life 