Juliet's Journal

Nov. 20: A Family Reunion

November 20, 2007

Just in time for Thanksgiving, we had a great reunion story! A woman gives up her daughter for adoption and spends nearly 40 years trying to find her. For years, she thinks it’s a lost cause, and she doesn’t have the money to keep searching. The search itself keeps pushing her into roadblocks … and then the Internet blossomed. With a few clicks of the mouse, the woman was able to find her daughter, and today they told their story.

They’d met back in June briefly, but hadn’t seen each other since then. We kept both mother and daughter separated all morning, and by the time mom was brought on set, you could see the anticipation was really hitting her. She was very emotional, and I was a bit concerned she wouldn’t be able to handle the chaos of trying to tell a story with lights everywhere, cameras moving, audience staring, crew bustling and of course, long lost daughter showing up. Mom was crying through the entire set-up package — it actually got me a little weepy.

I have to say, this is a story that hits me personally. Five years ago this Thanksgiving, I woke up and started to get ready for work. At the time, I was married. My husband came out to the bathroom as I was getting ready and had a strange look on his face. He said he’d spent the night, after I’d gone to sleep, talking with my father, who had called shortly after I went to bed. I thought that it was odd, since David and my dad never really had much communication.

So as I blearily brushed my teeth, David said “I talked to your dad last night for a few hours.”

I said something like “OK … and?” (Gee, could you tell this marriage wasn’t going to last by the raring conversations we had. Just kidding.)

“You have a brother.”

“No kidding, Sherlock. I’ve had a brother named John since, um … he was born and he lives in New Mexico and…”

David continues “…a half-brother you never knew about.”

THUD.

I didn’t faint, but it sure seemed fuzzy there.

Long story short, my dad dated a girl in college. As the story goes, their relationship (not sure how serious it was) ended, and she disappeared. My dad heard she went off and was pregnant, but he never knew by whom. He said later he suspected it might have been his, and when he met the woman he would end up marrying a few years later (my mom, Erica) he told her of his suspicions. They tried looking into it, but like our guests, ran into roadblocks and didn’t pursue.

So, after about 30 years, my dad got an email one day from a man named Brentt. It was, as we immediately saw from the similarities in appearance in pictures, my dad’s biological son.

Brentt was given up for adoption and now has a huge family out in California. He looks so much like my dad, it’s uncanny. His daughters look like I did when I was little. I don’t talk with him much, but when we do, it’s again, so uncanny how similar we are in terms of how we communicate. Our writing style is very similar; very conversational. His humor is much like mine, and my dad’s, too.

It’s a strange thing, finding out about family you never knew you’d had. Today’s story reminded me how much I’d like to get to know Brentt and his family. I’m glad we did it.

On that note — need to run off to get my hair highlighted. Then returning to work and calling some general managers of some stations that run our show to check in.