Fiction Must be Believable, as Life Rarely Is....Can You Find My Mother?

Life is stranger than fiction is one cliche that is true, especially for writers. That whole suspended disbelief tool is not as easy to use as one might think. If it sounds too far-fetched, readers just won't buy it. However, real life is often unbelievable--especially when it's true.

Case in point? I was adopted. I can't remember not knowing, or having anyone in my family treat me differently because of this. I had an idyll childhood, with Ozzie and Harriet (names metaphoric) as my parental units.  My foster parents went to our small-town church, along with my grandparents, aunts and uncles, oodles of cousins, and family friends.

So what was missing? For one, my big sister, Jan. We have pics of her when I was 2 and she was 4 1/2. My parents tried to adopt us both, but back then the courts weren't encouraged to keep siblings together. How did I meet my sister then, you ask?

Just suspend your disbelief and picture a family cabin "up north" in Michigan, next to my grandma's cabin, near my uncle's cabins, and not immediately known, my birth sister's aunt's house. 

Throw in a decade or so for good measure, and said auntie figures out that her niece, her brother's adopted daughter, is really the birth sister of the little gal next door that comes north with her folks to run up and down the street in front of their house, along with her little Scottie Terrier, Pixie.

My dad and I at the cabin, shortly after I was adopted.

Once I turned 18, Aunt Winnie called my dad and asked if I would like to meet my birth sister. Well, duh! And the rest, as they say.... We are such siblings as have never been parted for 16 years-- though we lived in adjacent cities. We are told we act a lot alike, even "sound" alike to the point most can't tell us apart on the phone. We have similar mannerisms, similar tastes and even share many skills and share tips on the same hobbies! Genetics....

Big sister, Jan.

So what about our folks? Believe it or not, Rippley, just today my daughter got back the results from a DNA test and became curious about her ancestry. She joined Ancestry and found this picture. Great Mother's Day gift, says I!  The names, uniform, races, and period were a match. Here is my sister's only picture of herself as a baby, and our only picture of our birth parents. It is especially poignant for us because our adoptive parents have passed on. 

We know our father, Donald Clayton Fortin, is dead, but we would love to find our Japanese mother, who we believe returned to Japan. Her name is Tokyako Kowasato (not positive on spelling as birth certificate is hard to read).

If you have a spare milk carton, please help us find our mom!