by Billygoat 35 Replies latest jw experiences
Dan, thank you for posting!
Ozzie - take a look here:
You'll see a family picture with my mother, her second husband, and their two boys. (This was taken sometime around 1985.) It's all in Japanese, so unless you can read that you might not get the story. At least it shows the picture.
Andi:
Got it!
Although I don't read it, i still get the picture!
And the music's great too!
Thx
Ozzie
I just sent this into Oprah.com. I had to keep it under 2,000 characters, thus the abbreviated version. Maybe this will catch someone's attention at Harpo Productions.
*******
Dear Oprah,
My name is Andi Weathersbee and I am 33 years old. I live in Richardson Texas with my husband Neil and several "4-legged" children.
My reason in writing to you is to see if you could help me. In 1971, my father was an American soldier stationed in Japan when he met my mother, a Japanese citizen. They fell in love, married, and moved back to the US where they found out they were pregnant with me. After a few years, they returned to Japan. The cultural differences between my parents was enough to tear them apart. When I was 3 they divorced. Believing that a half-Japanese child would fare better in the US than a half-American child would fare in Japan, my parents decided I would be better off with my father in the US. So we said good-bye and Dad and I returned to the US. For a long while it was just the two of us.
When I was 5, my mother returned to the US for a visit. She stayed with us for several wonderful days. I remember hitting her with a snowball and making her laugh. I remember sitting in the bathroom talking with her as she took a bubble bath. I remember crying and saying goodbye at the airport. For the second time in my young life, I didn?t understand why she was leaving.
When I was 15, we corresponded for several letters. But for whatever reason, we stopped writing. We lost touch again. I don?t have the letters or the address from which she wrote. I do not even have her new married name. The one thing I do know? I want her back in my life.
Is there anyway you can help me find her? I?ve done everything I know to do. I?ve written the US Embassy in Tokyo. I?ve written various Japanese newspapers with my story. I met a Japanese Baptist pastor here in Texas who posted my story on his church?s website. I have even posted my story on the internet with the hopes that she would google me! All to no avail.
I?m not really sure where else to go. Can you help me find my mother?
Sincerely,
Andrea (Andi) Kumiko McElfresh Weathersbee
*******
Why won't my story post??? Grrr!
Great letter. I hope she responds. She does it for so many others, that it would be so great for her to do it for you too.
Andi,
I wish you much luck at finding your mom...I really do hope that Oprah can help you...I understand your need and want to be with your mother....
I had a thought though...Maybe if I and others on the board also wrote to her, it may catch their attention even quicker?
I've written Oprah before for other things...I would be happy to write for this, Andi.
I just have tears in my eyes. As a mother, I know that your mother must have a whole in her heart not knowing where you are. I just don't believe any woman can have a child and have that child gone from them and not wonder, every single day of their life, where that child is.
I will PM you a family story of mine that makes me think so (don't want to post it here)
You are so special. Any mother would be so lucky to call you her daughter. I hope and wish with all my might that somehow, someone will be able to connect you to finding her again.
PS, your name Kumiko is so beautiful. So beautiful!!! *tears*!
love
essie
I had a thought though...Maybe if I and others on the board also wrote to her, it may catch their attention even quicker?
I thought of that to, Morty. Let's do it.
On Oprah's website are several upcoming shows that they want subjects for. This is one that I thought might aply to Andi. Do you have a nagging problem that you can't fix?
Or........Need a "HARPO HOOK UP" To Pull A Few Strings?
Or Oprah's WILDEST DREAMS COME TRUE!
If you click on any of those, an email form appears that you fill out and submit.
If its ok with Andi, my key board is ready.....(I have written to her a few times in the past myself..)
Wow Andi, every so often a thread comes along that really touches me. This is one of them. Wow.
Forgive me, but if I may comment ...
posted a thread last year with my full name on it and just the other day, realized, when I google myself, that thread comes up
Yeah Nina discovered that. After she wrote that letter to the elders after her father's suicide, every time she types in her father's name, the letter pops up (and that's how she discoverered her letter was translated into German).
I remember it was snowing while she was visiting and I remember her giggle as I threw snow at her. She brought me lots of presents, a stuffed monkey (which I now realize was a Monchichi - remember those?), dolls, other Japanese toys. I remember watching her curl her hair with a curling rod
It's funny what we choose to remember from childhood, isn't it? Flashes, bits and pieces here and there. It really isn't that big a deal to most people, unless that's all you have. Then those few seconds, flashes of memory, pictures, sounds, smells, even music, become the most treasured of things. There are ways, exercises if you will, that can flesh out those memories. It's not much, but I've been able to expand a few memories (and had them verified by extended family). Every so often, I like to visit those pleasant memories. It's nice.
I don't remember why. I've had a gut feeling that my father intercepted the letters
Yes, with everything else you've said about your father, this would fit his personality. I don't know why, but the first thing I thought of while reading this was the character Danny Glover played in "The Color Purple" and how he kept Whoopi Goldberg's letters from her.
This is a very cruel thing to do, and I'm sorry. You deserved better.
But perhaps...just perhaps...someday my mother decides to google me
You never know. I pray to God that she does.
I realize this thread is completely off topic regarding the point of this website. But it's helped someone in my past find me through a simple google search. Perhaps it will help my mother find me through the same route.
Of course. Please feel free to bring this thread to the top anytime you wish.
Do you think it would help to put your mother's full name? Or would that be too invasive?
Be well,
Chris
(((((((((Andi))))))))))) Good luck in your search. I hope you are successful for you and for your mother. She is missing out on a wonderful lady !!
