THE GOOD - THE BAD - THE UGLY

My Journey of Discovery continued, seemingly at a snail’s pace!

After discovering my sister’s adopted family name, it still took at least another six months for me to make any headway. I had posted part of the family story on a genealogy board in the town where we had been born. I was also using a genealogy site and had been for years now. I had a binder FULL of handwritten notes and letters and searches by “experts” and still nothing!

Then . . . one day I was contacted by another researcher who knew someone, who knew someone else. They had a very similar story. The names were not the same, but the timeline, geographical location, and some family names seemed to match. It was worth checking out . . . I was leaving no stone unturned . . . and I wasted no time in calling the phone number I had been given. As things turned out, the phone number belonged to my sister’s brother, and we talked for a VERY LONG TIME!

I spent most of that time answering questions from him designed to prove I wasn’t a fruitcake. At the time of this phone call, she didn’t even know I existed. The phone conversation had begun with me explaining the details I had and telling him I was pretty sure that his sister was also my sister. HE POLITELY LAUGHED AT ME! By the end of the conversation, he reluctantly conceded that it was a very good possibility that it could be true. We ended the conversation agreeing that he would present this fairly ridiculous hypothesis to her, and IF she was interested in talking with me, she would give her permission for me to call her. I WAS A WRECK – I had spent nearly 46 years searching for someone from my original family. This was closer than I had ever been, and I was a bundle of jumbled up emotions.

Three days later, her brother called me back to say she was astonished that she had a blood sister and yes, she wanted to talk with me!

What an incredible rush of emotions: joy, excitement, anticipation, and FEAR! I had been looking for my sister Jacqueline for years but had no luck. Now I found that her name had been changed to Cheryl when she was adopted, and her birthday had actually been changed as well. No wonder I couldn’t find her! I called her and we talked . . . and talked . . . and talked! And we talked every single week after that until the day she passed away!

Following our first phone conversation, I tried to figure out how to get enough money together to make a trip to northern Wisconsin to actually meet her. We agreed that I would save money and she and her husband would plan a trip to Washington, as soon as the snow melted, and they could get their motor home fit to travel. Maybe she would get here and actually stay! We had been apart too many years and we had a lot of catching up to do. Eventually she and her husband sent me a round-trip ticket to come and visit for a week! HOW AWESOME IS THAT?

What is my purpose in writing this story? Actually, I want to encourage my readers who are on a “journey”: Please, never give up! It may take some time. As I said, mine took approximately 46 years! You will feel such satisfaction, fulfillment and excitement at your accomplishment - no matter how it turns out. Any journey takes a lot of planning and has twists and turns as well as mountains and valleys. There isn’t always a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow – sometimes we just find a smug little leprechaun. But, the journey itself helps us grow and learn more about others . . . AND ourselves!