My dad had a medal file box that us girls (my sister, Debbie and I) weren't allowed to get into. There are many stories that will be the results of what I found in the tab-boo medal box.
No one was home on the day that I decided I wanted to find out what we weren't suppose to know about. I knew there was something big. I didn't know it was going to be as Hugh as it was.
My dad also had a photo album, that had photo's that he never would tell us who these kids were. After looking in this secret box I knew just who they were! OMG!
I was about 14 maybe 15 years old when this all happened. We lived in a small little logging town in Northern Idaho, "Weippe", population 713 people.
I knew that my dad was married before he married my mom. I only knew of once, mind you. His first wife died when my oldest sister, "Lillian" was 3 months old. That will be a story later. I grew up knowing Lillian as my big sister. She was raised with her moms parents in Grangeville, Idaho. I always thought of her grandparents as mine also. I never knew that they weren't until I got older. They always loved us just as they loved Lillian. They will always be my grandparents!
BUT....In this medal box I found adoption papers for a little girl and 4 little boys. WHAT....I HAVE ANOTHER SISTER AND BROTHERS?????
Do you know how hard this secret was to keep??? My dad would kill me (just a matter of speaking) but for sure I would have been beat to a pulp! Yes... my dad was mean to me (more stories there too!)
At the age of 16 I got married to Frank Joiner. (that story ends here!) Got divorced 1 year later. Now was the time of my search for my sister, Patricia (Patty), and brothers...Danny and Donny (Twins), Stephen Leroy ( he was named after dad), and the youngest Terry. They were really hard to find because there names had changed to the names of adoptions. They were adopted out to family members of their mom. Nothing was going to stop me now!!!
All I knew was they were adopted out in Iowa. Phone calls after phone calls. First I found Steve. The Red Cross in Orofino, Idaho is where I got my first lead on Steve. He was in a Veterans Hospital in Iowa. My parents had NO idea still what I was doing. That lead also took me to finding my sister Patty. I don't remember all my details now that was so, sooooo many years ago.
This search brought Patty and Steve home. Patty was at this time married and had a little boy "David".
By this time my parents KNEW and SHIT HIT THE FAN!!!! And yes, I got beat... he told me that it wasn't any of my "F@#!in' business.
Well, later dad found Donny. Donny came up to Weippe and lived at dad's for awhile.
By this time there was a bad situation that happened between my parents and the got a divorce. I went to Oregon with my mom. I watched my dad beat for all my life and I was glad that he wasn't going to do it any more! Sorry I hated my dad. But that's okay he hated me too! Just last year my sister Lillian finally explained to me WHY ( another story...later).
Years later, not long after my son Jeremy was born I was sitting at my kitchen table in Caldwell, Idaho. Making phone calls to all the Terry Anderson's I could find in Des Moines, Iowa. And I found my dearest brother "Terry" we sat and talked for hours.
Then I lost touch and couldn't find him again until Christmas of 2008. (another story later). This past July of 2009 I went to Des Moines and got to met my brother "Terry" for the first time and my Favorite sis-in-law "Midge" and my nephew "Ryan" and my niece "Kara" and spent a week with them. A DREAM COME TRUE!!! To be in my life FOREVER FROM NOW ON!!! (More stories to come) Terry and his family also took me to see Steve again (a story to come)
Then I spent the next week with my sissy "Patty" and saw "David" my nephew, again (he's all grown up now) with a beautiful wife "Christina". Then I got to meet my niece "Jenny" who I never got to see before and my great niece "Amber" and my great nephew "Alex". My life is Great. I have absolutely no REGRETS. I found my sister and my brothers. Danny I have only talked to on the phone, but someday I will get to meet him and his family also. But I HAVE FOUND THEM ALL!!!!
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