A Coincidental Click, Fate, Destiny, or…?

PERSON OF INTEREST | First in an ongoing series

— by Lin McNulty —

Cele Westlake, with one of the biggest smiles of her life.

Growing up, Cele Westlake had always known she was adopted. Even though she knew she had been born in Walla Walla, she would often fantasize that she was the daughter of Queen Elizabeth. She countered her cousin’s teasing about real family with the reminder that she had been “chosen,” much like the younger daughter on the TV series Father Knows Best.

She had been on/off Ancestry.com a few times, looking up and learning more about her adopted family. Occasionally, in the back of her mind, her thoughts would wander to that big unknown. Born in Walla Walla in 1950, when all adoption records were sealed, it seemed it would always be just a lingering mystery as to any information on her birth family.

When she clicked on a random, fluke Facebook link on how to find birth records at the first of this year, she learned she might be able to get a copy of her original birth certificate for only $20. In mid-February it arrived in the mail. This document listed the names of her birth parents.

Thoughts of “I could find out,” “Do I dare,” and “Will anyone respond” coursed through her consciousness.

Hesitantly, excitedly, Westlake renewed her membership to Ancestry.com to plug in her birth mother’s name. There, she was able to locate a picture of Verna Etta Russell, her actual birth mother. She sent an email and received a response from Donna of Pendleton OR, who asked Westlake for her father’s name. Donna then responded: “I talked with my mom; we are cousins.”

Not only has Westlake located a cousin, but a cousin who has accumulated 700 pages of ancestry going back to 80 A.D.

The trail then led Westlake to request a DNA test kit from Ancestry.com. Just a bit over a week ago, those results came back and Westlake immediately found a “perfect match” on Ancestry.com. Perfect match! She now has a brother, Ed, a bus driver and girls softball coach in Mountain Home, ID.  She went back to Facebook, to make contact with Ed, who had been searching for his birth family for the last 30 years.  It was “a breath of fresh air, and opened up a whole new chapter,” Ed told her.

Donna and Ed don’t know each other, and neither of them were aware of another brother, Ron, who also happens to live in Mountain Home, ID. Ed and Ron had spoken, their paths crossing as they do in small towns, but had no idea they were brothers, nor that they had a sister on Orcas Island. Ed had moved to Mountain Home six years ago from Forks, WA where he had been living when Westlake visited there a few years back. In fact, Ed was working across the street from the Forks motel when and where the Westlakes vacationed.

Ron and Ed have since contacted each other and have sent Westlake a photo of them together–living in the same town. Westlake has since learned her birth parents had seven children, all given up for adoption.

Tears, goosebumps, crazy dreams, and bouts of cruising newspaper.com have populated all the minutes of Westlake’s life in the past two weeks. A family (re)union is being planned for this summer by Donna in Pendleton where it is expected that Westlake will meet her 50-60 cousins, aunts, uncles, and siblings.

“I am ecstatic, excited beyond belief,” bubbles Westlake. She is also planning a trip to Montana this summer — with a stopover in Mountain Home.