Thanks to Good Will - ReUnion of Long Lost Family

Thanks to Good Will - ReUnion of Long Lost Family

The family Tree:

It started the instant I saw the faces smiling back at me in those black and white photos at my grandparents house. I had recognized most of everyone in them and the people I didn't recognize didn't seem to matter anyway.

I brought the picture over to my grandmother and asked, "who are they?" It was a picture consisting of what seemingly looked like a young mother and her two beautiful exotic looking children who looked mixed with something else other than asian.

My grand mother told me, "this is Visaka, your mother's younger sister and her two children Andrew and Marie".

"Wow! Really? I thought, she looked similar to my mom, why didn't I guess she was her sister. Then again I never met her, I thought I had met almost all of the 11 brothers and sister my mother had except for the ones that had passed along time ago. I wondered why in my 20 years haven't I ever seen her. My grandmother told me because they aren't sure where they all live and if she was still alive. She said that she was either in Cuba or Panama and that she had left with her husband who was stationed in Thailand not too long after this picture was taken. The last they heard of them, they resided in New Jersey.

Knowing that I had two older cousins that lived in the States haunted me time and time again. Questions of "what if I already met my cousins and didn't even know it. Or what if they walked right passed me and we didn't even know." The last time it really haunted me was when there was a Dateline documentary done on a brother and sister that dated each other and fell in love and never knew it because they were both adopted by different families within the same State.

Okay! So that would never happen to us but that paranoid feeling and curiousity mixed in making me want to do something about it.

The annivarsary days of September 11th in 2002 came and really got me going. I wondered if my cousins were okay, since New Jersey was so close to New York.

This pulled my "boat of curiousity" even further out into the "ocean of deep mystery."

I persisted to call over 30 families with the same last name my grandmother had wrote down for me. I called nonstop like a machine.

Everyone I called was so kind. I prepared myself to get a mad person at the other end. I knew one might have been mad if I reached a woman on the other end thinking her husband had cheated after asking "hi, do you know these people with the same last name as you?" or "Does your husband have any children by the names Marie and Andrew?" I had to be cautious because the 'what if they think their husbands cheated' thought stuck into my mind. That was not the case at all. Some even called me back to confirm that they had no one in the family with those names or that background story of being stationed in Thailand.

Finally I reached an older gentleman. He said "yes, I have grandchildren by the name of Andrew and Marie, but I don't have their number." My heart rose heart sunk in one minute. But then he continued, "the Only person that would have it, he continued was his son who lived on some land outside of New Jersey."

As soon as I got that number I was thrilled. I called him right away. As soon as I called there was no answer. So I called again, finally he answered, I informed him of who I was. It must have been a shock I know but I told him I understand what he must thinking and I told him why I was eager to know my cousins. I learned about the family timeline and days later my grandmother was able to speak with him. Then after that month, all connection fell through.

Two years later and four months late, we were so happy to receive our first letter from Marie! Alas, contact. It was two years later because it was 2004 going on 2005 from the inital year of 2002 of contacting their grandfather and father, and four months late because she sent the card during December 2004 and my grandparents were in Thailand until April of 2005. My heart was so worried..worried that she would think we didn't care enough to write back to her right away. But that wasn't the case! My Uncle Jack sent them a letter and still no response. I wondered if they just needed awhile to write back again or that they simply moved!

Thanksgiving 2005 comes and conversations at the dinner table flow. All of the ladies of the family come together minus me. I'm not quite a lady yet hehe. My grandmother, my aunt, my mom and I sat at the kitchen table. We begin to talk about my long lost aunt and her children again. My grandmother told me about how my uncle had written and no answer so that night, as soon as I get home and posted an missing persons ad on my dear friend Craigslist again in the Missed Connections Headline and within the proximity of what city they might be at.

Within, not even one night, I get a response from a great man by the name of Mark who was indeed Andrew and Marie's former landlord. Talk about right timing! Now I have made a great friend with my new friend Mark and Andrew and I are in contact and hopefully soon to be with Marie! As we come to get to know eachother, I feel so fortunate to know we will all reunite one day. Not enough, when he mentioned his mom, my long lost aunt, he himself said he wasn't sure where she is. So what did I do?

1. Type in craigslist.org

2. Click on the City I wanted to focus on in the far right hand side of the screen

3. Place an ad under the Missed Connections Headline

4. Remain Patient

What happened next was a great man by the name of Jim answered this time and found her address and number!

I have yet to speak to her but this is enough to get into contact of my "not so long lost" aunt.

How could I ever repay my angels Mark and Jim?

Jim said it best "pass on the good will" ...and this is how I can. Other than giving food and water to people who need it, giving clothes to the salvation army, and being positive...I thought of writing this.

Hopefully this article can spark a memory of a long lost one for someone that you have been meaning to find but didn't know where to start...by using the same method to find that person you know may be out there, but never knew how to reach them. This may be the inexpensive idealistic way to fulfill your priceless reward.

~Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to All~

Posted: 2:58 a.m. EST December 20, 2005 by Anne Meesriyong