Jack ‘n Tracie

Hehe I made a word. (Blog + anniversary… Get it? Ok so it sucks. Sue me!)

I’m two days late with this. I was all geared up to remind everyone that Saturday was our one year anniversary of the birth of this site! (The blog version that is.) Well, I got side-tracked with work, then I had two days off, then some crazy news got thrown into my lap, so this is a few days late.

But I bring lots of news. As most of you know from yesterday’s entry, I found out last night that my grandmother died. I was very upset. And I was miffed that I was not informed. She died March 8th, 2004 according to the obituary I found and posted the link to. I immediately blamed my grandfather, who I did not get along with. But then this morning I found out that he died last July. I wasn’t informed of that either.

The story is long… most of you know the condensed version. Some of you know the whole thing. But all of you know one thing, (especially if you ever read the “100 Things about Tracie” page) and that is I had a half-sister out there that I never met. All I knew about her was that she was born a few years after I was, she was my biological father’s daughter, and that her name was Jodi. Since I was 10 years old I’ve known about her and even tried searching for her a few times. But with only a first name and nothing else, I didn’t have much to go on.

That is, until today. I introduce to you, my sister, Jodi! She’s already left a few comments here. Say hi!!

So now you’re probably thinking WTF??? Well, yeah… I was too.

Ok so it goes like this: Last night my mom calls me and tells me she received a letter addressed to me with my maiden name, and it was from Eugene. I told her to open it immediately and read it to me. I knew exactly what it had to be…. news about my grandmother or grandfather since they both lived in Eugene/Springfield. It was a letter from my grandmother’s lawyer. She had died… There was a trust fund for me and Kevin. (I knew nothing about this.)

It left instructions to contact the lawyer. First thing I did was look online for her obituary and found it. I was floored to find out my grandparents were divorced. But looking back, it was smart for my grandmother to do this, as my grandfather wasn’t the nicest person in the world. (And the main reason I was cut off from my grandmother…) But they acted together and kept it a secret from me. Little did I know it was one of hundreds of secrets.

This morning I called the lawyer who told me about the trust fund. He also volunteered that he’d sent Jodi a trust fund too. So of course I flipped out at the mention of Jodi’s name. I instantly demanded (nicely… ok I begged) for Jodi’s address and phone number. He very happily gave it to me and said something about her wanting to know about me too.

What he didn’t know is that Jodi had no clue about me and it wasn’t until my grandfather’s death last year that there was even mention of another grandchild. Then when my grandmother died, she heard about me again. Then of course, today, I called her.

I write this through tears now.. it’s been a pretty rough day and I’m not sure how to take it all. Up and down, exciting and scary, definitely one of the biggest rollercoaster rides I’ve ever been on. Sad, happy, scary… think of any emotion: I felt it today 100 times.

I was on the phone non-stop. The lawyer called me back. My grandmother’s accountant called me back. Many questions were answered, and many weren’t. At the end of this day I have more questions than I ever had before. But that’s for another day. Right now I’m tired and Jodi is going to call me in a bit… so.. I’m going to relax and wait for her to call.