Finding Billy

Billy was the first child of four children ( born in Illinois ). Unfortunately for him the other three were girls. I am the second girl. The first 3 children were born a year apart all in February, our little sister was born five years later in August.

We lived in Camp point, Illinois. My grand parents and aunt, my moms parents and sister lived in Canton, Missouri. We were their only grandchildren and therefore very close, Billy was grandma Frenc hs favorite grandchild, but yet the rest of us never felt less loved by her. So when our family moved to Georgia grandma and grandpa French and aunt Nelly followed. Grandpa French died in 1973, 4 years later.

Billy was different from the rest of our family , he was with dawn and quiet and very very smart, He seemed to get straight A's without ever studying. He stayed in his room most of the time when at home, He would spend hours on Saturdays listening to the top 100 on the radio and listing them in his notebook.

When we moved to Georgia we started attending the church that our neighbors went to, us children and Aunt Nelly, Us girls rode the church bus while Billy had friends pick him up. He had few friends, some at church and only one other than that.

Billy graduated from high school in 1976 and joined the U.S. Navy shortly after that. We wrote to him while he was in boot camp, but he never wrote back. When he graduated from boot camp our family and grandma French drove down to Orlando, Florida to attend.

Over the years while Billy was serving in gthe Navy he only came home a few times, and never wrote. One time he came home and mamma gave him self addressed stamped envelopes with a sheet of paper sealed in each one that said "i am fine ". We never got even 1 mailed back to us.

Sarah ( first sister ) graduated from high school in 1978 and me the next year. Nelly died three months later. After i graduated I too joined the Navy. I, unlike Bi9lly, wrote and called and came home often.

In 1981 I married my high school sweetheart. My parents didn't attend my wedding ( that's another story ) Billy gave me away, dressed in his Navy dress uniform. The day after my wedding Billy left.

He was discharged from the Navy the next year and lived in San Francisco, California. He had lived there for a while when our parents were notified by his landlord that he had not paid his rent and not been seen for 2 months. Our mom called the police out there and filed a missing person report. The police called a few days later to inform our parents that they had found him and he was fine. They told her that since he was an adult they could give her no more information but they had told him that his parents were worried about him and he should call them. He didn't!

We lost track of him for several years, during that time grandma died in 1989, we tried to locate Billy but couldn't.

In 2001 when my son graduated from high school we thought we had found Billy in Reno, Nevada, we had a phone number which we called several times. The woman who answered never said there wasn't a Bill, Billy or William living there, she always said " he's not here"

-In 2006 Daddy died, by that time we had given up on finding him. My mom said " I still live in the same place. he knows where I am "

Fast forward to August 2032 mamma is turning 100 and we are throwing her a huge party! Family from up north are coming down and she is surrounded by her children, all but 1, her grandchildren and great grandchildren and great great grandchildren. She has opened all her gifts when a family none of us knows walks in. An old man and woman along with 2 pairs of young adults and several children. Who do you think it it? YES!!!! It is the prodigal son returning home after all these years. How dare he show up after all these years!! Mamma is rightfully angry! She yells at him to GET OUT!! He appears to be hurt but we tell him he has no right to waltz in here after all these years of ignoring his family and expect us to welcome him with open arms. after ignoring his doting grandmother who died without seeing him. Billy and his family walk out but say they will call mammas house tomorrow, she kept the childhood phone number which she hasn't used in years just so he could reach her. The rest of the party is strained.

The next day me and my sisters and a couple of grandchildren go to mammas to await his phone call. he calls and asks us if he and his wife can come over to talk, we agree.

He arrives and we all sit. Boy does he have a lot of explaining to do. He apologizes and it turns out that there really is no explanation, It just became easier to not have contact with us the longer he didn't. He had almost forgot about us, we were pushed far back in his memory. It hurt to much to think about us. He just couldn't come back after all this time. Mamma asks " so why are you here? "

His great grandson was doing a family tree for school and started asking questions Billy tells us he avoided his questions, but this grandson went around him and looked up the family on the internet. Billy was taken by surprise one Sunday after lunch when this grandson exitedly told Billy all about this side of the family. The secret was out! Everyone started asking questions at once.

Billy was told by several of his family members how unfair he had been to them as well as us. He had robbed them of grandparents aunts, uncles and cousins so.... here they were.

We decided it would be unfair for the families to be kept apart, after all it wasn't Billy's children, grandchildren and great grand children's fault that we had been kept apart

We are all Christians so we welcome him, eventually, and look forward to getting to know these brand new family members