Your Uncle John

4:14:00 PM judyo53 0 Comments

Born November 1, 1957

I mentioned before that the rules of The Chicago Foundling Home were two babies per customer. So when I was four years old Mom & Dad (your great-grandparents) adopted your Uncle John. His name was Baby Boy Deiter (not sure how it was spelled) and we got him fresh from the hospital. There I am, holding him on his first day home. Unlike me at 7 months old, he was only a few days.

He had some problems and had marks on his body where he had something done - like needle marks, on his feet (or ankles or somewhere nearby) and I believe his temples, although my memory might be failing me - I was only four.

I was able to choose his outfit that we were going to bring him home in. I remember Mom dressing him (I think on a bed) and to me I thought when people wanted a baby they went to that baby store and picked one up.

The story with Uncle John was that his father was in his 40's (43 maybe) and was married with 5 kids. John's Mom was in her 20's (possibly 26) and was a waitress at a restaurant where John's Dad used to go. They got together and she got pregnant with John and couldn't take care of him on her own so she gave him up for adoption and we got him at the "baby store." After having a girl already it was time to switch it up and get a boy.

I forgot to tell my biological parent's story. Supposedly, my Mom was 18 and my Dad was 19. He was in the army (and a musician in the army band) stationed in Hawaii during the Korean War. He didn't have family or something and came home with my Mom's brother (my biological uncle) during a leave. In that short time he got my Mom pregnant. That's the story I was told and it's pretty risque for the early 1950's.

I think both John and I have done a little searching to find our biological parents, at least our Moms (don't know if our dads even know we exist), but unless each party is searching for the other the only thing you can do is petition the courts. There is no guarantee they will allow you to continue with the search and it costs a lot of money. You are basically paying a private detective that will find the location of your biological parent or their death certificate. I didn't go that far.

That has always left a void in my life. I love my parents and was not interested in replacing them. I didn't even feel the need to have a relationship with my biological mother. I just wanted to see what she looked like, and any half brothers and sisters I might have. None of my kids look like me so I was just curious to see my biological family.