Christmas Wish

I've been working on a side project for some time now, hoping like anything it would all come round right by Christmas. It's almost within my grasp, but I can't quite hold onto it, if you know what I mean.

My grandfather dropped out of my mother's life when she was a child. Off and on as an adult she's tried to find him. I've helped. We've been lots of places online, plus a trip to Utah to look at records there. Been all through stuff in DC, found out about the fire in St. Louis that destroyed his military records. Almost found him at a Veteran's hospital in Florida. Located his sister and her family in Richmond, VA. It's been a work-in-progress for some time.



But this fall, I connected with a genealogist researcher through a friend of a friend. This person lived in the FL county where we thought he might have been a firefighter. So I hired this person to poke around down there. The understanding was that I wanted to have an obit and a copy of his headstone to give my Mom. Some months went by. I got reports of places she'd looked, cemetery listings in her county, etc. Over the weekend, she contacts me and says she's found him in a county on the other side of Florida from her.



I'm about to burst. But wait, there's no headstone pic, no obit. So close! It would cost too much to pay her to go over there and do this, and its so close to Christmas now that folks aren't working full time. Plus I've been ill and have company coming tomorrow, so it isn't like I can go.



That's my Christmas wish. To have this fall into place: the obit, the pic, and that smile on my mother's face.



Merry Christmas one and all!





Maggie


http://www.maggietoussaint.com/