A Family Affair(85)

“What else could I do? I thought you’d come back and we could start over. Are you mad? Because I was eighteen.”

Anna and Joe stood helplessly in the room, Phillip sitting on the bed, feeding Blanche careful questions, asking her for names and dates and other information, but it wasn’t long before her mind wandered off. She stopped remembering or answering, one or the other. Anna knew for elderly people with dementia that it wasn’t unusual for them to have vivid memories of things that happened fifty, sixty or even seventy years before, sometimes things they’d never spoken about, sometimes things they wished they could forget, while events that happened the day before were long gone.

After just a few minutes, when it appeared Blanche was losing her focus, Joe went to the car to get Anna’s briefcase. She spent a few minutes helping Phillip find his ancestry account, pulled up the names that had been sent to him as people with whom he shared DNA, people who might be relatives, both living and departed. There was a Richard Allston Jr. who was registered. He was sixty-three, four years younger than Phillip. His picture was posted and the resemblance was astonishing.

There was a picture of Richard Allston Sr. in an army uniform and it could have been a younger Phillip, the resemblance was so strong.

“I’ll be damned,” Anna said.

Phillip Winston stayed for a week. For two nights following the recognition that Blanche was his mother, he stayed in the hotel, researching on his laptop and visiting Blanche during the day. She was able to repeat the same things over and over again—it was 1954, she was eighteen, she had a baby and gave him up—but she really couldn’t elaborate. She had other very old stories—there was a girl named Carol who had lied to her and stolen money out of her purse, there was an incident at a dance club when the police rounded up a lot of young people, there were protest marches going on in San Francisco. There was a baby, this time a girl who she couldn’t give up, and she did not know the baby’s father’s name. It could be she couldn’t remember or it could be she never knew.

Phillip discovered that Richard Allston Sr. had died at the age of fifty-five. Heart failure was named the cause but there had been no autopsy. However, Richard Allston Jr. was alive and well, so another reunion would soon be in the works.

Phillip was invited to Anna’s house to stay a few more days and given Michael’s room. Joe stayed, too. Just because Phillip was a long-lost brother and had been carefully researched by Anna and her clerk didn’t mean he was beyond any possible suspicion. They talked and talked and talked, drawing for each other life histories and sewing the details together.

After a week it was time for Phillip to get back to his family, his kids and grandkids. His parting was bittersweet; he had found his mother but he was unlikely to see her again. He’d plan another trip for the early spring, but Blanche was failing.

As for Blanche, she seemed to have come alive a little with Phillip’s visit. For a while she believed her long-lost lover had come back to her. Her health seemed greatly improved, though it was a brief improvement.

The family was both elated and quite tired by the time Christmas was upon them. Anna planned a dinner to include Michael’s new fiancée, Jenn; Martin and Bess; Amy, Nikit and Gina; Jessie and Mr. Wriggly. Joe helped with the cooking and more family stories were told until they could tell no more.

“No one is to look up or research any more missing or secret relatives until I’ve had a chance to get to know the ones we already know about,” Anna said. “I think my head might explode.”



EPILOGUE


It had been just over a year since Chad McNichol’s untimely death; a year since his family had celebrated his life, grieved his loss, began to retrieve his secrets and make peace with the highs and lows of any human life. They may have had an official celebration of his life, but it had been too soon.

Now, a year after his passing, it was time to put it all in perspective and truly appreciate the ways in which they had grown and thrived and how much of that had to do with Chad, directly or indirectly. It was Anna’s suggestion that they all come together, not for a ceremony, but for fun and community. She reserved a bunch of picnic tables in a park near her home and Bess was all too happy to make a list of everything that was needed, from wine and burgers to covered dishes. And it was a perfect list.

Anna had long since stopped being in any way angry with Chad for his mood swings or his very inconvenient death and instead offered up gratitude for the amazing family he had sired. All of them. She was remembering good days and years of laughter and affection.

Jessie brought Mr. Wriggly to the picnic as well as what could only be described as gourmet potato salad and appetizers. Michael brought a soccer ball, goal nets, a cornhole game and a Jenga hardwood puzzle that stood five feet tall. Amy brought a giant pot of beans, Jenn brought a rich, messy dessert and Anna provided the meat. Uncle Phil did the barbecuing and was helped by Joe.

Patrick and Nikit kicked the soccer ball around waiting for Joe and Michael to join them and have a proper game. The women huddled near the warm grills because, although it was April, the weather was still quite cool. Baby Gina, whose favorite place was Anna’s lap, was bundled up nicely. Martin and Bess played Jenga, a game guaranteed to drive anyone with even a little OCD completely mad.

This, then, was the first official McNichol family reunion and all the players were present. Patrick and Jessie had resumed dating, more successfully this time. So far. It was looking good since Jessie, who was loath to give up either her newfound happiness or her counselor, was a new woman. And she was spending less time in her practice and more time at the clinic, taking on a management role and serving as a community liaison in San Francisco. She was talking about pursuing another degree in public health, but it was still just talk. There was hardly a spare hour left in her day.