As promised, niece Chris continues last week’s story below:

The Magical Power of the Blob – Part 2

Hello, again! As an update of our last adventure, after baby Fitzpatrick was born my sister, René lived with us into the summer of 1982 . During a visit in Cedar Rapids she met her then to be husband, Dan Melchior. Later that fall they were married. This is a photo of René and Dan’s wedding in October 1982. Dan said he wished they’d met a couple months sooner because he would have happily welcomed baby Fitzpatrick. Knowing that always gave René the freedom to search and know she had his support and help.

Baby Fitzpatrick was adopted by a loving couple, Dave and Kathy Turnball, and they lived a short time in Ankeny. Who knows how close she was to us then? They later had another
daughter, Megan, and moved about 30 minutes south to Indianola. Who knew she’d have two sisters named Meg? The story they had always told Sarah about her birth confirmed they were the couple Mark saw in the elevator. Dr. Naanep had delivered her. They had driven through the snowstorm to get her.

As Sarah grew up, her family was open with her about adoption, in age-appropriate bites, even eventually making her adoption papers available. Sarah and her family participated in an article about adoption in a local magazine. (indianola Living Magazine
October 1, 2017).

Now more on that October 6th 2017 event. After Sarah contacted me that evening, we kept coming across so many connections.

• One of my teaching colleagues went to church with the Turnballs.
• One of my high school friends had gone to college with Sarah’s dad.
• Sarah’s dad had taught Phys Ed in Ankeny, where Mark also taught, but they hadn’t been in the same building.
• Remember the Summys, who René nannied for? Well they relocated to Indianola. Mary
taught 3rd grade across the hall from Sarah, and Dave was her social study teacher in high school.

The phone call to René that next morning started the conversations between mother and
daughter. A shared photo album was created and we saw lots of similarity between the two of them and between Sarah, her kids and all the Fitzpatricks.

About 3 weeks later I got a message from Sarah “Hey, can you take a quick call?? I have a fabulous idea!” Remember in part 1 of this blog I ended with “You’d think my part in all this was now complete. Oh, no dear reader! There’s more” ? Here it comes…

Sarah had decided to drive with her kids to surprise René in Texas and she was asking me to help. Hmm, trip? Surprise? I’m in! So the scheming began. Fortunately, I’d lived 46 years with the King of Tall Tales (he once convinced my brother that his parents were KGB).

I’d need help so I once again enlisted Dan to be part of the scheme. We knew where Sarah and kids were staying. Next I called and asked René if I could come and visit for a long weekend and would it be okay to stay with them. With that in place I secured my ticket and a week later landed in Houston. René explained she had a meeting at school the next morning but after that we were free to spend the day.

When we got up the next morning I was showing René a few new things I’d purchased and suggested she might try one on. I needed her cleaned up and picture ready without saying so. We attended the school meeting, which was a benefit for me – you have to comb your hair and put on makeup for those things, right? When we returned René noticed Dan was home and questioned him, “you never come home this early”. Dan smoothly offered to take us out for lunch.

Dan drove and while on our way René got an unplanned, but perfectly timed, call from her son Dylan, who was newly deployed to Niger, Africa. Dan and I had worked out that we’d lunch close to our prearranged meeting spot with Sarah, so when he pulled into a little dingy strip mall we heard René say “I don’t know why your dad’s not taking us someplace nice for lunch, he’s driving up to a crummy Subway!” Well, while we enjoyed our crummy Subway, (I actually really enjoy their sandwiches, but René was not impressed) my tall tale began to unfurl.

I explained to René that on the off chance that I couldn’t stay at the house I’d booked a room at a hotel. If I could go there to cancel I could get my deposit back directly instead of waiting, but then I was free to do whatever she wanted. I felt pretty safe that last part wasn’t a lie, because she’d definitely just want to spend time with these new family members! She said sure and so I showed her the hotel on my phone and she and Dan said “Oh, that’s easy, it’s right across the street!” (How convenient!)

We finished our lunch, I had tuna with cheese and tomato on a 6” Asiago bun, and proceeded to the hotel. But what’s this? “Dan, why are you driving past the door? Are you making my sister walk all the way around to the front?” Geesh! So much for gentlemanly behavior!

From the parked car we could see the swimming pool with a beautiful blonde tending kiddos having fun. “Those kids must be on vacation!” Dan led the way and I took up the rear, surreptitiously holding my iPhone with camera turned on. As we passed the fence with kids’ faces pressed up to it, René said, “look at those sweet things” and waved a greeting to them. Oh, boy are you clueless! Again the complaint, “we’re not going to be able to get in through that door without a key, then we’ll have to walk all the way around”. Oh, René, you sound like your mother!

Dan opens the first gate, turns and gestures for René to enter. She looks back at me, befuddled by this behavior and sees my camera in her face. She turns and notices a teenage boy also holding a camera, then she sees Sarah! Purse drops and, well, I’ll just let you see the rest for yourself, excuse me while I blow my nose and wipe the tears off my keyboard.

Right away, Dan and I went and visited with the kids while the other 2 played catch-up. They FaceTimed Meghan, laughed and cried. Later that day René’s kids and Sarah’s kids got together at the pool, Ian and Gracie joined and we brought pizza in. The next days were spent sharing stories and catching up.

In months to come there were more meetings like this, even one in Florida on the 4th of July 2018 that included all the Melchior Mob!

There was even a meeting of Turnballs and Melchiors in Indianola, with stories of love and thankfulness.

And so the book has been opened and the new chapters were beginning. I’m so proud to have had a hand in it.

P.S. if you’re looking for a miracle I’d recommend talking to my Aunt Octo-woman…her blog is pure magic!