The Blood We Share

Mom died 6 months before you unexpectedly arrived; your prayers were answered and I, dumbfounded. I was still reeling with matters of her estate; meandering through her personal documents and searching for clues from curious momentos. I came to realize there were hidden memories, laced in intricate details. Details that explain the human psyche, programmed to protect from the chronic ache of an indelible memory. A memory tucked away, never to be shared, only carried. Prior to her death, when asked about her personal possessions in question, she would shrug her fragile shoulders and haughtily say, “I know nothing about them.” My mind wanders to 1942, I can only imagine how difficult life must have been; it is history that is behind us now. A history that was manipulated to avoid truth. Your birth certificate was fraudulently documented. Your parents’ names were construed for the cover-up. Our mother used her grandmothers name and her own last name, to represent your father; naming you Dennis, she documented your dad to have the same name. Time pushes us forward, leaving broken pieces of ourselves behind. Fragments of our souls that have been shattered; telling stories that glaze over the truth. Mom smothered out her reality, committing her life to the people of her community; developing programs to benefit children and adults, ages 3 – 103. She went to great lengths, drowning out, and making up for what she had lost. It took time and the momentum of technology to find each other. You were the child she silently carried for 76 years. After years of combing through archives, visiting cemeteries and inquiring in the community that you grew up in; you had given up hope of ever finding her. At the precipice of life, failing with Parkinson’s Disease, through the miracle of science, welcomed the news that your family had been found. Your stunning physical resemblance, your gentle demeanor, your love of life and the DNA match sealed the fact we were family; yet, strangers who shared the same blood. We travelled through life on different paths, meeting at a very unexpected crossroad, in the last chapter of our lives. You are my brother and I am your sister; we revealed ourselves, our lives, who we are and where life had taken us. We shared our stories, and like all good stories, they come to an end. You peacefully drifted away on August 28th, 2021 consoled, with the knowledge of your birth family; and now I carry you, and our story within me.