Dad came from a large family. He was born in Morovis, Puerto Rico. He was one of sixteen siblings. (!!) So many aunts and uncles equates to a lot of cousins. As the cousins all went in different directions, it was hard to keep in touch (pre-Facebook), resulting in lost connections with most of them.
Mom came from a much smaller family. She was born in Vienna, Austria and it was only her and her two brothers.
Her younger brother, Leo, was a painter (pictures not walls). I say "was" because he passed away last year. That's sad because I never got to meet my Uncle Leo. The timing was never quite right. He visited America once when I was living in Florida and I couldn't go back for his visit. Then in 1987, when I visited Vienna with my parents, he was living elsewhere and didn't come home for our visit. Leo never married. He was living in southern Austria with his lady friend when he passed away. He had no children, at least none that we know of.
Thomas is Mom's older brother and he still lives in Vienna, Austria. He is seventy now. He was married but recently got a divorce. He and my Aunt Elisabeth have one daughter, also named Elisabeth (I like the way they spell their name--with an "S" and not a "Z"). She keeps in touch with me through Facebook. I haven't seen my Uncle Thomas since July 1998, when he came to America to attend Dad's funeral.
You would think it would be easier to keep track of Mom's family tree than it would my Dad's, you know, since there are a whole lot less of them. I thought so too, until I received a phone call from my mother this morning.
I found out I have a new cousin. She was born on March 14, 1975 (yes, in 1975--that is not a typo). Her name is Felicity Savage and she is the daughter of my Uncle Thomas. Surprise!!
Mom said she told me about Felicity years ago when she first became aware of her. Felicity called out of the blue looking for her father. She said she even told me that Felicity was an author of science fiction/fantasy books. I don't remember Mom telling me this, but that may be due to old age on my Mother's part...or just maybe on mine.
For those of you who do not know my Uncle Thomas, he was quite a character in his younger days and also quite the ladies man. He worked as a truck driver, the eighteen wheeler over the road type. He used to drive all over Europe and back in the 1970's he even came to America for a while to drive our roads. That is where this story began.
From what my mother told me (again?), Uncle Thomas met a lady from South Carolina named Helen. Thomas was living in Charleston when he lived in the States. Together they had a daughter, Felicity. She was born in Columbia, South Carolina (not too far from where I am now).
Uncle Thomas may have had a hand in naming Felicity, as my grandmother's name was Felicitas. I think it is too much of a coinicendence not to be true.
The reason for today's phone call to Mom was to get in touch with Thomas to inform him that Felicity's mother, Helen, had passed away. Mom obliged and gave the caller (Felicity's aunt in Boston) her brother's address and phone number.
A Google search turned up a few pieces of interesting information about Felicity. I found her website. She is indeed an author of about 20 novels and short stories. She was very popular in the SciFi world and published her first novel at the age of 19.
This is where the story gets a little confusing.
I found a short biography written by Felicity at age 20. In it she said, "her southern belle mother met her father, a Viennese truck driver, in Paris." She said she grew up in France, Ireland and Scotland. She also said her mother died when she was 14 and she and her brothers were sent to the US to live with an aunt. That is when she started writing.
I'm not sure what's right and what's wrong in this story. I may never know. What I do know is I have a cousin out there that I am going to try to contact to officially welcome her into the family.
One last note--I found a later biography of Felicity on Smashwords, a publisher of E-books. In it it says that Felicity lives in Japan with her husband and two cats. I knew instantly I was going to like this woman!
~ P
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