Last weekend we made a just-under-the-wire-before-we-go visit to my Uncle Ed in Tacoma Washington. Most everyone who knows me has heard about my discovery of Ed. To make a very long story short, I'd spent years looking online trying to find out what had happened to my paternal grandfather George. He'd left my grandmother when my father was just a baby and it has always been such a mystery. No records anywhere other than what my dad already had - a name and a copy of a WWI draft card. After that it was like he had just vanished.
I'd done DNA testing through ancestry.com and didn't see any connections that would help. After several years I decided to try 23andme. I got my results back the day after Thanksgiving in 2019 and as I'm scrolling through and looking at my matches I see one that is a pretty solid connection. I'll never forget the moment as I looked at the profile and clicked on the ancestry composition and saw Greek and Balkan instead of the usual Norwegian and Irish/English. I knew that FINALLY I'd found someone who could maybe provide some answers or insight. I messaged him that night and that is how I found my Uncle Ed - my dad's half brother. I know there are controversies around these kits and privacy concerns etc., but it was just about the greatest gift I could get. Because of this I got to see a picture of my grandfather for the first time in my life. It was pretty amazing. We met in February 2020 right before the pandemic shut everything down. I'm forever grateful.
So we had this quick overnight visit to Tacoma. We got to see the Museum of Glass and the Tacoma Art Museum and then a fabulous dinner at Primo Grill. On the way back to our hotel Babac and I couldn't stop marveling at how much Ed reminds us of my dad. It is really something! My dad never knew his father and Ed never met my dad but somehow, through genetics, they are both so similar. I only wish we'd made this discovery while my dad was still alive. But getting to sit across from Ed and share a meal and conversation was like having a little bit of my dad with us and that meant everything.Â