The "Who" to whom I am referring is quite possibly my Uncle John, my mom's youngest sibling and Snoop Dogg look-a-like (white edition, of course). We have not seen nor really heard from John in about 10 years and if you know my mom and her family, this is HIGHLY unusual! You see, throughout the course of John's life he made some very bad choices leading him on a very rocky path which was lined by monetary loans from my Grandparents. When my Grandma passed away in 1999 (Grandpa having died in 1994) my Aunt Irene was left as executor of the estate because of her aptitude in finance. She discovered that Grandpa had written receipts, some of which were signed by John, of how much the loans were and when he would pay them back. However, he never did. He had borrowed upwards of $40,000.00 with no attempt to pay back. Irene held a family council with my mom and the rest of the siblings to discuss the impending inheritance all of them were to get. She brought up the fact that John had borrowed all this money and the fact he had never made any retribution. It is true the rest of them borrowed money from time to time but it was always rendered back. So it was unanimously decided that John had all ready received his inheritance and that he would not have to pay back to the estate.
This did not sit well with John's wife at all and in fact she wrote a nasty letter to Irene accusing her and the rest of the siblings of malice. And that was it. We never heard John's feelings on the subject and any phone calls or letters to him have gone unanswered.
Keep in mind my mother was like his second mother. There is 20 years difference in their ages and when John was little their father had to have massive surgery in Denver leaving my mom to take care of her brothers and sisters. I remember John telling me when I was younger that he thought of my mom as his mom more than his own mother. For John to cut off contact with my mother has been devastating to her. But that's the weird thing...we all think that it's not so much that John has cut off contact so much as it is that Kimberly has all control of that household. My mom has sent them birthday cards and Christmas cards every year and she'll call him on his birthday but her attempts are never acknowledged.
A couple years ago I found John's son Stephan on My Space. I didn't really know him that well but I thought it would be a good "in" to see how his dad is doing and possibly get him to call my mom. But Stephan was very evasive when asked about his father.
Just tonight, as I was looking over my cousin Greg's Facebook, I noticed that he recently became friends with Kimberly!! Greg and John were best friends growing up as they were the same age and John hasn't even tried to contact Greg. So this was a shock! Of course, Kimberly's profile is set to "private" however she does have an old photo of her and John. I also noticed that Kimberly has posted comments on Greg's Facebook that make it seem like nothing is wrong.
Maybe so much time has passed that she's not bitter anymore and hopefully this will be the "in" that my mom and her family so desperately want so that they can re-kindle their relationship with their long lost brother. I certainly hope so!
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