Life Stories
FACEBOOK AND FATE
MORGAN ST . JAMES
Normally this feature is written by one of our contributors , but on the weekend of January 7 , 2017 something so special happened , I decided that this issue ’ s Life Story would be one of mine .
It was Saturday night , and I was getting ready to go out for the evening . I looked at the clock on my computer , and saw I had about 15 minutes before I was to be picked up . So what does one do in a situation like that ? Um hm . Go onto Facebook and check a few things .
I scrolled down past a few messages and came to one where my Facebook friend ’ s husband has cancer and they were talking about treatment . So I looked at some of the comments and was stopped dead by the name of the second commenter . Lisa ’ s name included “ Shifrin ” before her married name , which is my maiden name , and it was spelled exactly the way my family spelled it . I looked closer . Could this possibly be a long lost relative ? It isn ’ t that popular of a name .
My father died when I was 17 . We had moved to California when I was 13 , and a few years after he died we lost track of most of his family in Chicago . I knew I had several cousins , and remembered some of them from when we lived in Chicago , but as time passed , our contact with members of the Chicago was as frozen as a midwest winter . I stared at the name again as excitement built . I clicked on the link to that person ’ s page .
Yes ! She went to college in Waco , Texas . That was where my beloved Uncle Bernie lived . I quickly dashed off a message asking if she might be a relative , and gave my father ’ s name . Since I had a few more minutes , I went back to her photos and scrolled through them . The first one that I took more than a glance at was an older photo of a youngish man holding his little daughter ’ s hand . I was struck by his resemblance to my late father . So I kept scrolling .
Then it happened almost simultaneously . An older black and white photo of a young man whose face I immediately recognized jumped out at me . It WAS Uncle Bernie who had passed away in 1994 ! Just as I was pondering that , a return message came in . The name that had grabbed my attention replied , “ Yes , we are related . I am your Uncle Bernie ’ s daughter from his second marriage .”
OMG . I realized she and her brother had visited my home in Woodland Hills , CA . when Uncle Bernie traveled to California to see his other daughter in the late
FLORIDA , 1949
1949 PONTIAC MY DAD DROVE TO FLORIDA
ME AT 17 - THE YEAR MY FATHER DIED
THE FIRST PHOTO WHERE I SAW THE RESEMBLANCE TO MY DAD
WRITERS ’ TRICKS OF THE TRADE
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17
WINTER 2017