Missing Chapters

Sean got a new brother about a year and a half ago. Not a new baby brother. A new big brother.

It's funny how you can think your story reads a certain way, but then you find out there were some chapters missing.

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Sean’s father had been married before. Everyone in the family knew that. There was even an older sister out there somewhere. No one had ever spoken to her, though. No one knew where she was.

The family has always had an old black and white photo of her in a tiny oval frame. She was about three years old in the picture, and she was wearing a little white dress. This was all they had of Rebecca.

One day, when Sean and I were both in the office on our computers, he mentioned something about the long lost sister. He said he felt like there was a missing piece in their family, and he wished he could track her down.

Why don’t you Google her?

“I’ve tried. I just come up with thousands of sports results, with her first name in one spot and her last name in another.”

“Don’t you know that you’re supposed to put quotes around the words you want to appear together?”

“Huh?”

“Put quotes around her name and try again.”

So he did. And he found her. Just like that.

Rebecca seemed a little hesitant to communicate at first. She had always known that she had some step-siblings out there. But she hadn’t heard much about her biological father, and what she had heard, well, I guess her mother hadn’t spoken very highly of him.

But lately she’s been talking more with Sean’s younger sister, and they even met up in Boston over St. Patty’s weekend last month. So the connections are being made.

And she had a bit of information that no one in the family had ever known: Rebecca was a twin. Her sister had died when they were young. No one even knew.

********

It was just a few weeks after finding Rebecca that we received the phone call. It seemed Sean wasn’t the only one who felt the longing created by a fractured family.

We had just gotten back from dinner, and Sean was checking the voicemail. With a confused look on his face he brought the phone to me. “You have to listen to this.”

A thick southern accent came through the receiver: “Hi. My name is Steven G, and I’m from Charlotte, North Carolina. I’m looking for information on my father, TB. If you have any information on him at all, please call me back…”

“Um… Honey? He’s looking for information on his father… His father is your father… This is your brother!”

The thing about it was, though, everyone knew about Rebecca. Although they had never met her, and they hadn’t known about her twin, they did think of her often.

Steven, on the other hand, was a complete surprise.

And since Sean’s father had passed away 8 years ago, there was no one to answer the questions.

Sean emailed Rebecca: “Guess what? You’re not the oldest anymore.”

********

Steven had lived most of his life believing that the man who raised him was his father. Why would he think any differently? He came from a big happy family. But after serving his country in Desert Storm, someone brought it up one night when the family was gathered together at his mother’s house.

“You should tell him! He could have died over there.”

“Hush!”

“Tell me what?”

And so somewhere in his late thirties, Steven learned that his life story didn’t read quite the way he thought it did. Well, for the most part it did, except that he had missed the prologue. And no one had ever told him that his story had a prologue at all.

It took him a few years to decide what to do about his prologue. But eventually, he got enough information from his mother to track the family down and make that phone call.

Unfortunately, he never got to meet his biological father.

But believe me when I tell you, you have never seen anyone happier to have found his new family. Steven is the sweetest guy.

He came up to visit and meet everyone just before Christmas that year, and he was absolutely overjoyed. Hugs for everyone. Christmas presents, too.

“C’mon, let’s start catching up on everything we missed growing up.”

“What do you wanna do?”

“Well we’ll each pick something. I pick Snowball Fight.” It was time to start writing new chapters.

********

Then we went to North Carolina to visit Steven last summer. While we were there, we got to meet Steve’s sons. The crazy thing is, Steve’s oldest son doesn’t just LOOK like Sean’s father; he looks like he IS Sean’s father (when he was young). Genetics are pretty amazing.

I wonder if any other new siblings are going to surface?

You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them. ~Desmond Tutu