Meeting Dad

Me, my step mother and my dad

My full name is Frank Cornelius Kitchen. I’m named after my father Frank S. Kitchen. I knew him when I was young, but due to divorce our time together grew limited as I grew older. The last time I saw him was when I was 18 years old.

We could point fingers and blame each other, but that’s a waste of time. A few years ago, I decided to locate him. I had several friends who were adopted or others who were considering adoption. There were searching out their birth parents. The others wanted to learn more about the parents of the child they would be adopting.

I was talking to my wife and we were discussing our family histories and wanting our future children to know their family lineage. What did I know about my dad? A little, but I needed to know more. Thanks to the internet, he wasn’t hard to find. I found an address and wrote a letter to it. About two weeks later, I got a letter back. It was my dad. We both agreed we had been apart way too long. The letter led to a phone call. The phone calls led to e-mails and texts. We’re still working on communicating more. It’s a work in progress to be honest.

The work paid off this summer. Kelly and I took a cross-country trip to see family and friends and on the way back we stopped to see him. I was scared and nervous and excited. Having my wife with me helped. I hadn’t seen my father in 20 years and now I was going to meet him and his wife (my-step mom). He would be meeting my wife for the first time too.

I’m not going to go into too much detail, but when I saw him, it was dad! I could tell it was him. I remember him being a big man. When I stood next to him, I was taller now. We talked, took pictures and caught up. Our time together was limited, but we promised to see each other more often and to talk more.

Here is a picture of my visit.

Life is short, if you have a relationship that hasn’t been the same for awhile, take the time to work at rebuilding it. It will take work, but it will be worth it and valuable for the future.