Here’s a remarkable story of two sisters who never knew each other. Ed tells the story.
September 15, 2002: To start this out, let me paste a copy of a letter I sent to NBC some months ago. They had aired a show that dealt with finding and reuniting lost relatives.
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I am looking for my daughter. I last saw her in 1971 in Brighton, Colorado. She was living with her Mother whose maiden name was Jan H****. Jan and I (Edward Born at that time) were married in Newbury, Massachusetts, in November or December of 1968. Emilie was named Emilie Shana Born at her birth in Anna Jacques Hospital in Newburyport, Massachusetts. I am not sure that Jan and I ever filed an income tax return. We had lived together for a few years before our marriage, but I never met her parents. They lived in a town north of Denver. Jan had one brother. Either her father or brother was named Max. I believe it was short for Maximilion.
Jan and I were living what some called a “hippie” lifestyle. When Emilie was just 6 months old we traveled to Ibiza, Spain. I already had a passport, and I believe that we got one for Jan and Emilie while we were visiting my mother near Chicago. That would have been around May of 1969.
Jan and Emilie went back to the US near the end of 1969. They located in Ojai/Wheeler Springs area of California. Within the next year Jan had another daughter and named her Cinnamon Born, although I was not the biological father.
I looked them up when I returned from Europe in 1971. Jan was living in a mobile home in Brighton, Colorado. We had a nice visit Emilie and I had a great time together. That is the only time I saw Cinnamon. Jan and I and the kids had dinner at the hotel I was staying in. It was during that visit that Jan presented me with papers to sign for the adoption of Emilie. She was working for an EMS service in Brighton and had met a man she wanted to marry. She had gotten a divorce from me by then. The deal she presented me was this: They wanted to be a family–Jan, Emilie, Cinnamon, and a daughter that he had. If I would sign the adoption papers, they wanted me to just go away and let them be, and in turn they would not pursue me for child support.
At first I tore the papers up and refused but after thinking about it all for a few weeks, I reconsidered and asked her to send them for my approval. I had no means of sending a regular amount of money, and I did want them to be a family. As my mother noted, I still had “sand in my shoes.”
I can’t remember the future husband s name but I keep thinking it was something like Wilborn or Ozborn or something like that. I am 59 now–I was never that good at memory and now I ve gotten worse.
So by keeping my obligation to go away, Emilie and I have lost contact.
In 1976 I became father to Andrea Mercedes Born, whose mother is Gloria B***** of Brookdale, California. Annie grew to be an impressive young woman, a leader in her high school, talented performer in a number of school and community productions, and a kind-hearted girl whose dream was to work with special-needs children. Annie was chosen as her high school’s outstanding sophomore and was invited to join the Hugh O’Brian Youth Foundation (HOBY).
At that time Annie became very interested in stories she had heard about Emilie and decided that she would like to find and meet her half-sister. I noted to Annie that, because I had signed over adoption papers, I was not sure how a reconciliation of any kind might be received. Where one child might wonder about her parents and always want to meet them, another child might harbor resentment towards a father who walked out of her life. This didn’t stop Annie for a minute. She wanted to meet her half-sister and said that, if we could make contact, she would visit and then let me know which way the wind blew. We tried contacting a missing-persons page on the internet. We never received any response, and then a computer crash wiped out the link I had stored for that site, so I don’t know which one it was. Another search site wanted money to proceed, and they admitted that, without a social security number for Jan or Emilie, it could get quite costly.
And then the plot sickens. On July 4, 1997, Annie was murdered by an ex-boyfriend in Fresno, California. She was just short of her 21st birthday, an honor student at Fresno State. All the details of this grisly crime are on our website, along with much more about Annie’s life and the tributes that have arisen from her death. The address is http://www.cactushill.com/Annie.htm.
So now Annie’s search for her half-sister has been cut short. I want so much to continue that search, but still hesitate to pursue it myself for fear of upsetting Emilie and her family. On the other hand, I wish Emilie and Cinnamon could know their wonderful sister Annie, even after her death.
Naturally, with Annie’s death, Emilie’s existence took on a new meaning to me–my only biological child. I admit this is very important to me, and of course I would love to meet Emilie. But I want to be very clear: My primary consideration is for her, and I do understand how difficult it could be for us to meet.
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Well, when Chris and I were on vacation these last two weeks, we routed ourselves through Brighton, Colo. We stopped by the county courthouse and for 25 cents I got a copy of the thirty-year-old court adoption order. Now we had the information we needed for a web search.
First we finished our vacation through Yellowstone, Teton, Rocky Mountain, Arches, Canyonlands, and Mesa Verde national parks along with Taos, Santa Fe, and Roswell, N.M. As soon as we got back we got on separate search engines. We got no response by looking for the adoptive father but got lucky and found a Cinnamon M****** in Colo. COULD IT BE? EMILIE’S SISTER?
Finally! I have searched for her for over 7 years and have thought about her for all of her 33 years. In the space of six hours after we got a break and found Emilie’s sister’s phone number, I called Cinnamon and left a message and asked her to call if Jan was her mother and Emilie was her sister. A few hours later she called – talked to her awhile and she gave me Jan’s phone number. Jan always was and still is a wonderful woman. (We were together for 6 years and parted on good terms.) Turns out that I am a grandfather 4 times! My daughter Emilie lives near Jan, and within the hour we were all on the phone and talking and crying and reminiscing. They live in a town in Colorado that Chris and I drove through in the mountains less than 2 weeks ago. One works at the only gas station and the other in the town’s only diner. If we had only stopped. We drove right through.
Well, Emilie was so excited, she never bonded with the new Dad and has kept the one picture of me and says it is worn out. They have been hoping for years that I would find them. It was and is so great! I can’t believe it.
I have 3 grandsons and a granddaughter. Paul 16, Stephanie 14, Tevin 11, and Justin 8. (HeHe Tevin Eleven)
On top of all is the love that they have for me and how much they want me to be a part of their life. I am just walking in clouds today. I can’t believe it.
I just had to share this with you. I have a family again. What a miracle! Love, Ed
