A 50 year Quest ends in Success...A True Story

   Les was about 11 years old when his paternal grandfather gave him a photograph.  His granddad was just about to board a bus for his trip back home to Las Vegas, and the picture seemed almost an afterthought. 

  "She's your sister and her name is Lois Ann," his grandfather said thoughtfully, as he pressed the picture firmly into Les's hand. 

  " She lives somewhere in Ohio and that's all I know about her now." 

  Then after a hug, and a pat on the shoulder, Les's grand father was gone.

  Les knew that he had  been given a great gift. He says he has never received a finer present in his life. But, there was more to that last exchange. Les said he knew he had been given an unsoken mission. Thus began the fifty year search for his sister, Lois Ann, from Ohio.

  Les and Lois shared the same father but had different mothers.

  Les said he would study the picture and wonder who Lois was. What she was like? In her picture, she was wearing glasses and had a big smile. She looked intelligent and studious. She appeared friendly enough but maybe a little restrained. Les said he wondered if she knew about him. He would keep the photo in his pocket and never travel without it hoping that in his travels, someone would recognize her.  
 
   Les grew up in Maryland, and he began his search in earnest when he left home. He scoured news papers and schools but had no luck. All he could find was that Lois had lived in a Cleveland, Ohio, suburb that was a part of the Noble School District.

  Then the key to finding Lois was handed to him. But at the time he didn't know it, and it would take a tragedy for the key to work.  While Les was on leave, prior to going to Vietnam, he stopped and visited his paternal grandmother in Las Vegas. During that visit he was reunited with his father, Les Jr. His father ackowledged having a daughter but he had never heard from her nor did he know anything about her.

  Another fifty years would pass quickly and Les was no closer to finding Lois than the day he had gotten the picture from his grandfather. Then Les's father passed away.

  After Les's father died the attorneys went to work trying to piece together the fractured family. Les's big break came when he got a stack of legal papers in the mail naming all of the heirs to his late father's estate. There were two...Les and Lois. 

  Though it was obvious that the estate attorney had found Lois, there was no mention of where she lived. No address. No phone number. Nothing.

Les called the attorney and begged for the mailing address, or phone number of Lois, who was now living in Florida. Unfortuately, the attorney for the estate couldn't give out such information. So, Les, being the computer illiterate that he is, did the next best thing. He got his computer savvy daugther to do a trace of public records. He had finally found his long lost sister. For Les the thought of calling a complete stranger and introducing himself as her brother was surreal, and a little frightening.

  He was afraid that she wouldn't want to speak to him. After all of these years what would she think?  After thinking and fretting for two days he finally got the nerve up to call her. Les told me that hearing her voice was like listening to an angel. Les said they both cried.

  "That was the best phone call of my life," Les said, tearing a little.

   They talked for hours. Les said that now, his family circle was complete. He felt more at ease with life. 

  He told me that he had never given up the hope of finding her.  He said he doesn't understand why he kept searching; even with all of the dead ends, he just couldn't quit. He said he always felt a deep need to find her and quitting would have been too painful.

  Another really odd touch to this story is that even though Les, and Lois, never met, or spoke, they led very similar lives. 

  Both lived in troubled homes and left at very early ages. Both serve in the Army and worked in the medical field. They have very similar interests and a strong yearning for family. Lois left the medical field and became a school teacher. Les changed his college major from education to medicine yet he is  an excellent instructor. They share so many other traits, likes and dislikes, but the list is too much for this article.   

So, congratulations Les and Lois. Family really is everything.