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    A Single Strand
    A Single Strand
    A Single Strand
    Ebook168 pages2 hours

    A Single Strand

    By Edith J Thomas

    ()

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    About this ebook

    A story of adoption, searching, finding and becoming a family for thirteen siblings separated by fifty-six years and 2,745 miles. A story of perseverance, frustration with the adoption laws and differing backgrounds all coming together in one place. It is the story of a group of people who become a family.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherEdith J Thomas
    Release dateAug 31, 2012
    ISBN9781476404769
    A Single Strand
    Author

    Edith J Thomas

    I am a wife, mother, grandmother and an older sister to twelve siblings: 6 brothers and 6 sisters. I have a husband of 47 years, three children and four grandchildren. I currently live in a small "one horse" town with one stop light, one bank, and one grocery store. I've lived in mid-size cities and prefer the slow, country style life we currently lead. Where else can you experience a traffic jam of 3 pickups, a tractor and a lawn mower? Heaven! My siblings would probably agree I was born to be the older sister: bossy, nosy, and just slightly dysfunctional. Yeah, I fit in well with them.

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      Book preview

      A Single Strand - Edith J Thomas

      A SINGLE STRAND

      Edith J Thomas

      Smashwords Edition

      Copyright 2012 by Edith J Thomas

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard workof this author.

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      Chapter 1 --- Edith

      Chapter 2 --- Thomas

      Chapter 3 --- Woodrow

      Chapter 4 --- Gloria

      Chapter 5 --- Charles

      Chapter 6 --- Jessie

      Chapter 7 --- Melinda Gay

      Chapter 8 --- Jim

      Chapter 9 --- Diane

      Chapter 10 --- David

      Chapter 11 --- Larry

      Chapter 12 --- Nancy

      Chapter 13 --- Brenda

      Chapter 14 --- Donna

      Chapter 15 --- Our Continuing Chapter

      Disclaimer

      There are several members of our joined family who are still uncomfortable revealing their innermost thoughts and feelings regarding this coming together. While their positions in the family are noted, their names may have been changed. We, the rest of us, continue to love them and pray for their peace of mind.

      We feel that our story is so unique both in the sheer number of siblings and in the duration of time it has taken to get us to this point. We also feel we have a story to tell which will help others come to grasp with their feelings and thoughts simply by knowing they are not alone. We did not just come together in love and friendship. Some of us have known each other for years and have gone through the normal getting to know you and I don’t know if I really want to know you stages. There was one death of a sibling that came between sisters for a number of years.

      It is the story to encourage others out there to not wait to start searching. Most of us hesitated to ask our parents about our adoption process because we did not want to hurt them. Some parents were very open about it. Some preferred to never speak of it again except to call us adopted darlings. Times have changed. Adoption is more open now than it was fifty years ago. But to get answers, you must ask questions. We can never find the answers to some of our questions because the ones who could answer them are no longer with us.

      It is a story that has taken 56 years to write. Fifty six years from the first separation until the first get together of twelve of the thirteen surviving siblings (one sibling was being treated for a serious disease) and the children of the fourteenth who passed away twenty years before. For some of us, it took years of searching to find the first of the siblings, some of us got on the internet and found not one but twelve living siblings in a matter of a few days. Some were contacted through the internet, some by a neighbor coming up and asking are you ? , your family is searching for you and would like to talk to you.

      It is the story of HOPE and TRUST and LOVE. It is the story of a family connected by a single strand of DNA.

      Our thanks go out to:

      The ones who gave US life

      The Parents who raised US

      And loved us unconditionally

      JC and Dorothy Newland

      Who loved us enough to keep track of US

      All the families who accepted US

      Cher Caldwell

      chercaldwell@yahoo.com

      post adoption specialist

      Who found US for the lost siblings

      Our Children

      Who cried with US and put up with US

      And who accepted a lot of strangers as

      Aunts and Uncles

      But mostly our spouses

      For being there with a shoulder to cry on

      A pat on the back for accomplishments

      A grin as we discovered our similarities

      And differences

      And Love as we muddled through

      the maze of siblinghood.

      (Not to mention the temper tantrums we threw or

      The hurt feelings or the hurt hearts as we

      Worried, loved and laughed.)

      My special thanks go out to Diane and Gloria

      For being my sounding board as I cajoled and prodded

      Our siblings to get their stories.

      And

      God for putting US where we needed to be

      at the right time

      We are United Siblings.

      2010 to present

      We came together as a family in 2010

      David 1921 to 1953

      Velma 1930 to 2005

      Edith 1947 to present

      Lona 1948 to 1948

      Thomas 1949 to 1990

      Woodrow 1952 to present

      Gloria 1953 to present

      Velma became Peggy 1953

      Charles Porter 1922 to 1961

      Charles 1955 to present

      Jessie 1956 to present

      Gay 1957 to present

      Jim 1958 to present

      Diane 1960 to present

      David 1960 to present

      Dirk 1911 to 2006

      Larry 1962 to present

      Wanda 1964 to 1964

      William 1964 to 1964

      Doyle 1928 to 2000

      Nancy 1967 to present

      Brenda 1972 to present

      Donna 1973 to present

      Some of these names are not the ones given us at birth, some are. Most are the ones we grew up with. We all owe a large debt of gratitude to the parents who raised us as well as the one who gave birth to us. She, in part, made us what we are today.

      Chapter 1

      Edith

      "I guess the first thing I really remember was kids—lots and lots of kids. There were always lots of kids around where Mama worked. But the only ones important to me are the two boys and the baby. I am supposed to take care of them and find them something to eat. I search the open cabinets and look down into the bread barrel. There, way down deep, are two or three pieces of bread. Good. I saved some of the tomato gravy from last night. If I mix that with the bread, at least the boys will have something to eat. But what do I feed the baby? She’s crying again. No more dry diapers. I’m sorry, sweety, did I pin that last one on your belly button? This should work but this ole towel is pretty prickly. Brrrrr… it’s cold. I need to pull that curtain down over the window. Wish Mama could put something in there. That wind is blowing again. C’mon, boys, let’s all cuddle here on the pallet. If we scoot really close to Laura and the wall we’ll stay warmer that way. I can wait until Mama comes home. I know I’ll be in trouble but the only way to get the bread is to turn the barrel over and let one of the boys crawl in to get the bread. Robert, can you climb up there and get that can of milk. I need to mix it with the bread to feed Laura. Jackie, you crawl in and get that bread. No, no, don’t eat it yet. It’s okay, baby, I know you’re hungry. There’s no fire to heat the gravy. It’s cold. It’s food. They eat. I am 6 years old. The time is the 1950s."

      We can only guess what the next few months were like. Velma was uneducated, a widow with four children, no money, no way to work. From pictures, we know she lived in shacks with her children. What few pictures survived with other members of David’ family show an angry little girl and a frustrated woman with two little boys and a baby. She was almost nine month pregnant when David died. Laura was born a few days after the funeral. When the authorities (meaning the child protective services) found out about her living arrangements, she had to make some harsh decisions—pack up and leave the area or wait until they took her children away like they had so many of her sister’s children.

      Laura (now renamed Gloria) was the first to go. It was easy to find someone to take a baby. The other three were 6, 4 and 2. Sandy was in school and there was no one to watch the two boys now. Gloria’s new parents had some relatives who were desperate to adopt some children and they were not choosy. Any age, any sex would do.

      Helen and RD had been married six years and Helen was about to celebrate her 30th birthday. They had been trying to have children but each month the news was the same. When Betty (Gloria’s new mother) called to tell RD about the children, he dropped what he was doing and hurried home. He quickly told Helen to grab her coat, they had to go pick up their children. She was dumbfounded. What? Children? RD must have lost his mind. He explained to her as they made the forty mile trip to Monahans, Texas. Never one to watch the speed, RD made the trip in a little over 30 minutes. The two of them admired Betty’s new baby as she told them about the others. For two hours they nervously awaited the arrival of Velma and the children.

      At last they arrived. One look and Helen was hooked. They could go home with three beautiful, albeit filthy, children. What a birthday present! It was not to be. Yes, they could have the two older ones (Allene and Robert) but Jackie was going to stay with her. The last words I remember Velma saying were Be good, both of you, or they won’t keep you. We, Robert and Allene, were put into the back seat of the car and we drove away leaving behind our baby sister and little brother and (got out of the car as Edith and Tommy) to a life neither of us could have ever guessed was possible.

      For the next twelve years, Tommy and I lived what many would have considered normal, middle class living. At first we thought we were in heaven. Finally we had enough food to eat and a house with doors and windows. Of course we had the normal adjustment period. Neither of us would have anything to do with Helen. She reminded us too much of our Mother, the one who had deserted us. RD was tall, red headed and looked a lot like our Daddy. We were naturally drawn to him. Mom told us later that it took almost a year for me to accept her as Mom. Dad told us of the many sleepless nights she spent crying in her pillow.

      "Life was pretty good. Tommy and I learned how to eat bacon, eggs, steak, and hot chocolate whenever we wanted it. Heavenly! There was glass in the windows, tile on the floor, a door that had locks. And there was an INSIDE TOILET. What more could two children possibly want. Then there was the telephone call about three months after we went to live with Helen and RD. Dad turned his head when he was talking. When he hung up, he handed each of us a coat to put on. Then he made another phone call. We got out in the car and drove to the bus station. Dad told us to stand right beside the light so we could see. He and the man with the star on his shirt got into the bus when it pulled up. The other man stood in the doorway of the bus while Dad walked a little way inside and we could see him talking to somebody. A woman got up and tried to get past the star man. He said something to her and she sat back down. Mom was standing beside us holding our hands, squeezing hard. It hurt. Many years later, Dad told me about that visit. It was Velma coming to take us back. The

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