Adopted, and non existent....

Bio Uncle Rocky called me one night in a drunken stew. Telling me he had heard I had been calling asking questions. He said, "if you have questions, you ask me, no one else will tell you the truth, but I will"

so of course I asked about my bio mom, and how I became into being.
His version of the story was basically the same as the aunts, only, he didn't claim to know about his other sister being pregnant with a baby at same time as my biomom. He also, said, the guy was married, and left town with his wife, leaving my biomom to fend for herself with three children, one on the way from another man, meaning me. If he knew where the SOB was he would go shoot him!......so.....Not another good story.....He also informed me, that my bio mom had a child for another couple who couldn't have one. Meaning....There was another child adopted before me! Another mystery!! ??

Story number three comes several years down the road, after finding cousins, being told to just let dead dogs lie, and still not finding my siblings!

.... Biomom had gotten married again in 1954 , Wilbert Fisher, strangely enough, she got married in Newton KS. Which, is a mystery to all of us why she would come to Newton and get married! (where my adoption was legalized) They both being from Joplin, MO.??
She married a man with 6 other children (his total ended up being 10), and had two more with him, plus her own 4!!!! She gave me up in 1952, had another son by her first husband 13 months later, they had 4 kids not counting me! (the biggest question.....I had always been told I had two older brothers, and two older sisters) but....According to birthdates, there is no other older brother......So....Was it the older child she gave up for adoption before me?

She divorced Roy Rooks....(as he married a woman from France 2 more kids...) and we think he had one in Germany too with at least one more kid!!!!

We quit counting after finding his 9 or ?
Biomom, then, being married had 2 more kids....Totaling 7 kept, 2 adopted out...TWO?

Brings us to 1954, in steps a baby sitter. This baby sitter took care of the brothers and sisters, and while she was married to husband number two.
She became ill in 1957 after the last baby was born. The baby sitter was more and more involved with the care of the children, ranging ages 11-new born. The baby sitter was aprox. 14-15.....Remember this leg of the story later...


1959, Biomom is full of cancer, and dying. Fisher takes her to California to see her favorite sister, along with the 6 children.
She takes a turn for the worse, he puts her on the train, with a Red Cross lady, and sends her to the Newton train station, where her two sisters and husbands pick her up, along with the 6 children and Red Cross lady and take them to the Joplin hospital where she died with in days.
The last my grandmother had seen any of the grandchildren had been the day of the funeral, their dads picked them up from the cemetery and drove off with them all.
4 with one, 2 with the last husband. She never knew where any of them were taken.

This brings me to 1979. The phone rings, and it is a "sister", she had surfaced in Joplin to visit our bio grandmother. Grandma had shown her the letter I had written back in 1972 asking if anyone knew Alberta Rooks bio moms name. After speaking for a couple of minutes, she insisted I was the baby driven away from the cemetery in 1959. I kept telling her no I was born in 1952, but, she didn't want to believe me, and refused to believe her mom had given a baby away ...She insisted she would have been 4 years old and would have REMEMBERED a baby not coming home....But....She didn't..... Because....I was that baby!
She was in California, her husband was a migrant worker and they would work their way back to Muskogee when the crops were done. They work there way back to Musgokee in the winter, and would call me when she gets back.

At that time, she didn't know where any of the other brothers or sisters were either but, when she got back to Muskogee she would look for addresses.

During this time we wrote letters, exchanged info, and she still didn't believe I was the baby born in 1952, but, once she finally communicated with Aunt Dorothy, she finally believed I was who I said I was!

February 1979, we went to Muskogee, to meet my first sibling.
they always say the First impression is the lasting impression..... Not true, I have a very loving impression now, years later....
but that day, it was of Louise, the victim....
It was chilly, we drive up to the very dilapidated house, and three small children run out all three in diapers. Ages, ranging from 5 to 2. The next person I see is a very large, dark headed woman, who to me was beautiful, but had the "typical look of an Indian squaw" and, once again, the children were filthy, she was not well kept, very dirty clothing, and, another child looking out the window and she probably weighed 350 or more!
She invited us in, her husband, at that time being maybe 65, she said he wasn't sure of his birthday!! , sat in his chair, never getting up. She gave me the tour of the house, no furniture in the living room, but, hand prints all over the walls as if the children had nothing else to do but run around putting their dirty hands on the walls. The bathroom was not a place I wanted to put my toush, and, they had no beds, only mats on the floors, with piles of dirty clothing on the floor. She tried to pull out clothing for the kids to put on instead of their diapers.... My heart broke as I saw this type of poverty for my sister. I had led a very sheltered life up to that point, as the bugs crawled on my feet, up my leg, all over the furniture, I cried inside, wondering what I had gotten myself into sibling wise. (she has since, gotten a new life, and lost weight, and I am proud she is my sister!)

Her life had dramatically changed the day our bio mom died in 1959, her daddy taking her off in the car to his "French wife" in Washington state, who didn't have a clue he had an exwife with 4 kids, let alone that they were going to be staying with her while he left to go back to Korea!
Our oldest sister became a baby sitter for the 4 and her 2, while she enjoyed the night life, bars, men & booze....He came home a year later and died of cancer, leaving all the kids in Washington with no one who really cared for them. His brother came and picked them up, and took the oldest sister to his sisters home, and took the other 3 to his farm, expecting them to be the work slaves, and beating them if they didn't do as he said, damaging them in their childhoods....When he got the government check from their fathers payment of death, he took the kids to the orphanage and dumped them off. Her story is just so sad, she never had a chance in life....
My heart broke for her while we drove home, I cried, because she had such a difficult life, and I had such good parents whom I hadn't learned to appreciate!!! BUT I DID NOW!!!

When I got home from meeting Louise (Emmie) my adoptive mom ran out of her house and hugged me saying she thought I would not want to come back home!

After our meeting Emmie, she wrote my brothers 1 in Oklahoma , and 1 in KC., and other sister in MO., and gave them my address. To which they wrote, and we ended up meeting one by one over the years. We all had such different life styles, and upbringings it was very difficult to "bond" and get to know each other.

Story three, SEVERAL years later, probably back to 1999, A cousin who had formerly lived in Joplin but had moved away, moved to Wichita, and called me asking to meet up with her. We hit it off right away, she was energetic and full of stories, but, none about my mom. Apparently, aunt "Teeny" which is what they called biomom, was kept away from family by her controlling husband when he wasn't in the army he was controlling her, so she stayed home, away from most family and that is how no one knew about me.....BUT.....Cousin believes, her dad, had a problem keeping his pants zipped, and, got to my biomom...So...She thinks, my biodad is her dad! BOY I NEED A BREAK! I STILL have not had any kind of proof from this, and, the only way we could actually find out would be DNA tests. Everyone who knows the truths in this family took the truth to their grave. We have one living Aunt, but she chooses not to face any of this and refuses to give us any information. Altho, she did offer info about our biomom, needing love and having made bad choices in men! DUH!
She also gave information which was not expected but gives us reason to believe the story of the child being given away to a couple who couldn't have one could have some validly to it. Our frail grandma's old husband seemed to have a bad case of child molestation, and got to our biomom, could this be the baby given away to the couple who couldn't have a child? The 14-15 year old baby sitter? but wait, theres more to this mystery!

Back to 1987, I received a phone call from a lady in Hutchinson KS. She had been to Joplin MO to visit her step mom (French Lady) she had never met her before but wanted to know the lady who had been married to her dad. French lady, took out a box with some letters and in the box was a letter written in 1971 asking help to find an Alberta Rooks, or Roy Rooks. She hadn't known what to do with the letter since he had died in 1961, and, she didn't now anything about Alberta, she just put it in a box.
Now, 16 years later, it was being answered!
Jeanette was the oldest child of Roy Rooks, and she remembered fully when her daddy left her, her mom, and sister for our biomom!
She didn't hold it against our mom, but she sure did against her dad.
Her mom had remarried a wonderful man a few years later and she was thankful she had such a good step daddy. She has a heart as big as Texas, and has been the baby sitter for most of Hutchinson! Her sister is Barbara in Savannah GA. We got together quite often for a few years but have since lost touch.

1988 My wonderful Adoptive parents, had a birthday party for me after finding my siblings, and, we had our first reunion! We at that time had not found the baby sister Nancy Jo or her biobrother Michael. Louise didn't have a way to come, but my two brothers Carl & Roy were there, my oldest sister Annie from Missouri meeting her for the first time, she was the sister, I had always hoped for!!! The two step sisters Jeannette, Bill & Delaine, & DJ & Barbara& Cheryll WOW WHAT A 36th Birthday PARTY!!! It made up for all the ones I missed as a child! My two brothers even took care of the entertainment, we had a water hose fight! WHAT FUN!

1997, I got my first computer. I had heard about "chat" rooms for adopted people, and I was still looking for the baby sister and brother who had been driven off from the cemetery on the day of biomoms funeral.
I took home the computer, hooked it up, not knowing that AOL was a long distance call, and not knowing anything about computers, I think I did pretty good hooking it up, and getting on line with in a day! My first phone bill was 90.00!!! That quickly got taken care of once I learned local numbers to get hooked up to.
I put in the word adoption and found a world of info, and chat rooms.
But, not my sister. Time passed, now aprox 1998, and, we moved. I got back online, and, found a message board where I could put a listing for my baby sister asking for anyone knowing of a Nancy Jo Fisher daughter born 1957, and Mike Fisher, born 1955, children of Alberta Rooks Fisher please contact me. With in days, I had an email from a lady who had also seen a search put out by my baby sister looking for for Alberta Rooks.....she put two and two together and put my baby sister in touch with me!
I drove to Texas to meet her, and this was a VERY happy Reunion!!

As she had a cell phone, and I had a cell phone, we called each other to check and see our locations, trucks we were driving, etc, and out she flew, came running to my truck, all 95 pounds of her....here was this tiny little spit fire from Texas, the baby sister we finally had found each other!! !

We enjoyed a week in Texas, and then drove to Muskogee, met her/our brother Michael who had been missing since 1959, and all the rest of us.... on March 3, 1999 we, all 7 of us, were in the same room, for the first time in 40 years! Here were the oldest 3, then me whom they hadn't known about, the next three two of which had been whisked away when 2, and 4, and now for the first time we sat with some of our children and visited in the same room! The oldest remembered the two youngest, so were totally thrilled at reuniting with them, but, once again, I was the outsider, but at least I was part of the reason we got all together!!

It was not an Oprah style reunion, and it took several years to get it all together but I am so very happy we were able to get that one reunion it.
Our oldest brother Roy who, also kept us all stirred up with his behaviors and gossips about one another, came to Kansas to see our step sister, but, choose not to stop in and see me since he was upset with me for not loaning him some money. He was in Kansas for Christmas 1999, drove back to Oklahoma, and, on the day before New Years Eve of 2000, I got a call he was found dead in his apartment, apparently a heart attack when he got home from Hutchinson.
Since he was always showing up unannounced and always upset if I already had plans, it didn't surprise me he died on THE WEEKEND of the Millennium for party plans! I packed up and went to Oklahoma to help clean out his apartment, there was no one else that could go do it at that time except Delaine her sister DJ, and brother Carl, and myself. We had his body cremated, and, laid to rest in a local cemetery, but, had no service.....Which I feel sad about but my niece wanted to put something together after the holiday when everyone could be there, but..never did...

Baby sis, Nancy Jo, has since been doing so much more searching, and, has come up with the biggest mystery......Her adoptive mom was the 14-15 year old baby sitter from 1957, who, also, might be that child who was given away to the couple who couldnt have a child!!!!
Baby sis has found so many other mysteries, I have asked her to QUIT looking, we will NEVER find answers, these people are dead and buried! Her adoptive father is still alive, but...wont tell her anything....why do people think they are doing a favor by keeping secrets!!!