My grandfather, during WWII, was in Sydney, Australia for a time. I now live here.
My mother told me recently that I have an Australian uncle. My grandparents were engaged, but not married when he was here, and he apparently had a son by an Australian woman. My mother found out just before he died a few years ago.
(Not actually part of the story, but my grandfather was a jerk. This proves more of his general jerkiness, and I’m ok with that. I never really liked him, and he never liked me, because I am his oldest grandchild and, to quote Bill Cosby, god forgot to put the stem on the apple. My next oldest cousin is some 7 years younger than me, with the aforementioned applestem, and Grandpa liked him a lot, but he didn’t like Grandpa either, none of us kids did. He drank, he was horrible to us, and REALLY horrible to my mom.)
I’m fuzzy on the details, as is Mom, but the upshot is that I have the name of the child, a general time-span for his birth, and the first name of the mother.
I realize that a.) the mother may have remarried, and that the son may not have the last name of my grandfather any more (apparently he was given this name at birth) and that b.) he may know nothing of my grandfather and c.) that my grandfather basically abandoned him. (I mentioned he was a jerk, yeah?)
I’m curious, and you know, here. The man in question would be in his late 50s. Its possible I could find him, if I worked at it. But…would he want to know? Should I try?
I’m inclined to let sleeping dogs lie, even though I’m fascinated with the idea that I have a realitive here, so far from any of my others.
Thoughts? Very pointless, but still. Grandpa and Grandma are both dead now (and I miss Grandma terribly), so no worries about what the old bastard would think of it. My Mom is…well, a bit nuts, frankly, but either wants me to try or not depending on when I speak to her about it. And I love my Mom, so I want to do what she wants in the matter. She lost two sisters, has two other brothers, and has problems of her own related to her lupus that cause her to have mental difficulties sometimes.
So I don’t know. What would you do?
Cheers,
G