My Story begins - part 1

Everyone has something in their lives that is remarkable or tragic or unusual and most people's lives are often truly, "stranger than fiction" . But I doubt that many people live a life believing one thing about themselves and then come to learn that what they thought, what they believed, what they were told, was all a lie. To learn that the facts of their life, are different than what they had been told, what they knew and what they expected is not your every day occurrence. And certainly not at 68 years of age. We do not expect life-changing surprises at this age, about ourselves or our families. Other than maybe a serious illness, which can rear up its ugly head at any time, and I had already gone through that with breast cancer in '94, I was not ready for what happened to me in when I came home late one evening,checked my voice mail and heard the following:

"Hello Dolores...My name is Michelle Romano and I live in Boston. My Dad and I have been doing some genealogy research and have recently found out that he has a cousin we never knew about. After doing some more research, we think that cousin might be you. If you were born in Panama, in 1939, you are probably her. If you're not, I'm sorry to waste your time, but either way, if you could call me back and let me know I'd really appreciate it!"
This was the exact message that Michelle left. I was in shock. At this age you do not expect to hear you have a cousin you never heard about. But this was to be only the tip of the iceberg, as they say.

All that evening, I kept asking myself, how could I have an Italian cousin? Her name was Michelle Romano and Romano certainly sounded Italian to me. But I was Jewish with the maiden name of Friedman. I once married an Italian and had his name for awhile but, she also knew my birthday and and that I was born in Panama. Few people knew that! Who was this girl? I didn't sleep well that night and could barely wait until I could call her in the morning. Little did I know that with that phone call, my life was about to change in ways I could never imagine. The photo you see here is that of Michelle and her husband Matt. Matt and Michelle have 5 children and they're not even Catholic.

I will share this story in bits and pieces, as things come to me, out of order, with no rhyme or reason other than I just have to get it all out...to write it all down. I don't know why. But you can believe every word as it is all true.