Another Red-Letter Event

My wife Ellen was an adoptee. Her parents made no secret of her Japanese birth mother’s identity (Toshie Uchida), and did encourage Ellen to find her. They did not know where she was, though. After both of Ellen’s parents passed on, Ellen felt like an only child, and determined to find Toshie, or at least find out what happened to her.

But, with the help of dear friends in Japan, and a private investigator in Chicago, Ellen did finally locate her near Peoria, Illinois. Ellen made contact, and found out she has a half-sister and a nephew that we never knew about. Emails and phone calls led to a trip to Peoria June 4 through 6. All three of us went. This turned out quite well, as you can tell by the looks on everyone’s faces. Here are four photos from the trip.

The first shows Ellen, her sister Joyce, and her mom. We all marveled at them gabbing away, while around that table, and others. It was clear they were related.


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The second is of most of the men associated with these three. Left to right are me, Ted Meyer (Toshie’s husband for many years), our son James, and Joyce’s husband Tim Ricci. Ted was Navy and Marine, then a railroad hand for decades, now retired. Tim is a policeman.


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The third shows my son James and his cousin David (Joyce and Tim’s son). Both of these two are into computers and gaming.


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The last is a close-up of the two sisters, Joyce and Ellen. The picture says it all. As it turns out, both are involved with correctional work professionally. Amazing.


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This trip was a wonderful visit. I think there will be many more.