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| Reunion 41 years in the making |
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| News | |||
| Written by Brian McCauley | |||
| Wednesday, 01 July 2009 07:00 | |||
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Tammy Seamands’ mind began to race when she first opened the e-mail at work about three months ago. While still somewhat in shock, the rural Paola woman got up and walked downstairs to try and clear the thoughts bouncing around in her head. “Is it someone just trying to verify my maiden name?” she thought to herself. “Could it be a scam?” After a few minutes, her thoughts began to shift. “I guess there’s a chance it could be real,” she wondered, a feeling of hope and curiosity brewing inside her. “Let’s see what he has to say.” Back in front of her computer, Tammy was again faced with the e-mail message she walked away from earlier — and there was no denying the straightforwardness of the electronic words. “I know you don’t know who i am but i have talked to shirley chisam your mother and mine ... I am your brother,” the message began. “hate to spring it one ya but i would like to know more about you and any other kin i have... She calls me every satureday since we have met on line but i still have a bunch of >?? and would like to know you...I’m not some physcho just somebody who would like to know more about what you all are like.. I lived in kc for 15 years and still have friends there and luv the town...I’m in jacksonville florida and just wonder if she has ever said anything about me..I know your probably think what the hell??? but i’,m for real and wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t say anything back to me but i have went to alot of trouble finding out who my mother is and where i come from. Marty Knight” Careful not to reveal too much personal information, Tammy typed a brief reply to the e-mail and hit send. The message was gone in a flash, but the questions still lingered. Could she really have a 41-year-old brother she never knew existed? If so, where does he live and what is he like? This could change everything. Another e-mail from Marty answered many of Tammy’s questions, and soon she began unraveling the pieces of a story that had been kept from her since her birth. Tammy had always known her mother had her when she was 15, and she was raised by her grandparents. “I basically called them my mom and dad,” she said. What she didn’t know until three months ago was that her mother had another child when she was 16, but she put that child up for adoption immediately after birth. Tammy never knew that child was adopted by a family in Springfield, Mo., and named Marty. She never knew Marty got good grades all throughout school just like her. She never knew she had a brother who shared her genetic traits, such as a lazy eye and muscle disorder that causes her jaw to pop. And she never knew, until recently, there was a middle-aged family man living in Florida who had recently lost his adopted father, spurring him to petition the courts to find out information about his real mother.  Marty was able to get the courts to give him his real mother’s name, and he first contacted her last October, Tammy said. Not wanting to upset her daughter, Tammy’s mother kept her in the dark about the situation. It wasn’t until Tammy’s mother asked her to send a picture to her in an e-mail that the secret started to unravel. The e-mail was forwarded to Marty, and from it, he was able to find his sister’s e-mail address. The two began trading e-mails every week in March, and soon they started chatting on the phone. The long lost siblings quickly realized they had a lot in common. “We hit it off,” Tammy said. Finally, Tammy worked up the courage to tell her mother that she knows about Marty. “She cried and said she’s glad I know,” Tammy said. “She said she thought about him every year on his birthday. He was born on Mother’s Day. She never even knew if he was a boy or a girl.” With Tammy’s family picture becoming more clearer with every e-mail and telephone call, it was only a matter of time before she met her brother in person. That family reunion happened Saturday at Ameristar Casino in Kansas City, Mo., where Tammy and her husband and children and a number of other family members finally got a chance to meet Marty, his wife and his adopted mother. “If you’re going to be his mother, you have to be my mother now, too,” Tammy told her brother’s adopted mother. It wasn’t hard for Tammy to recognize her brother. She had already seen pictures of him, and he was wearing a shirt that said: “After 41 years here I am!!” The newfound family enjoyed a dinner together that evening, and afterward, Tammy invited her brother back to her home outside of Paola. It’s an evening she said she won’t soon forget. “It was pretty awesome,” she said. The experience has even got Tammy thinking about her real father, who she has never met. All she knows is that his name is Donald Moore and he should be in his late 50s. She assumes he’s tall because both she and her brother are tall, but their mother is not. As for her current family, Tammy said she isn’t mad at her mother or her grandparents for not telling her about her brother. “That happened a long time ago,” Tammy said. “There are no hard feelings.”
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