Scandal Timeline

My family is going through a scandal and it's ugly.....

Timeline:

1997(98)--I met my dad, T. Shaw Sr. I had prayed for a year to meet my dad. I'm not absolutely sure why I was praying to meet him, but I'm sure it had something to do with the fact that my stepdad was an alcoholic and he couldn't take care of my family. So I was searching for a real father and a friend. So I prayed to God and He answered my prayers.

It was during the summer when I was home from college. My aunt asked me if I wanted to go with her and her children on a school fieldtrip to a carnival way out past Jefferson Barracks (St. Louis area). I just said yeah, not thinking much about it. I got there and there were children everywhere. Then a man came up to me, "Do you know who I am?" I told him that I didn't know who he was. "I'm your father," he said. For a minute I didn't know what to say, so he called two children over and introduced me to them as my brother and sister. I guess that broke the ice because I started telling him that I was in college and my other sister was going to the military. My aunt was watching me the whole time. She knew who he was.

He gave me his address and phone number and I told him that I would come to see him. When I got home I told my sister and we went to see him. When he opened the door, it was like looking in a mirror. I saw my sister (my sister and I look like twins, so it was like looking at myself). He could not deny that we were his. We looked just like him.  We hung out with him, his wife (girlfriend, they never formally got married). He called his mom--my grandmother and we talked to her. I made plans to visit her that summer.

Summer 1997(98)--I met my grandmother B. Manning. I had to work that summer at a summer camp on campus. I was supposed to be there on Sunday, but I told my family that I was going a few days earlier. Instead of going to campus, I drove right past to Freeport, IL. Where my grandmother lived. I spent the weekend with her. It was great except for the fact that she was a chain smoker. We played dress up. It was like I was a little girl and my grandmother was dressing me up, except I was 19. She dressed me in her clothes, dresses, and even fur coats. We made plans to see each other again later that year.

November 1997(98)--I went to see my grandmother after Thanksgiving. It was CCCOOOLLLDDD outside and the chain smoking was killing me. But, I suffered through it. I remember riding in the car with her and cracking the window so that I could breathe some fresh air. While visiting her I gave her some pictures of my sister and me. She then told me that my grandfather left and inheritance and that she wanted to make sure that me and my sister's name was in the will. I just told her okay and when the time came, I left and went back to school. I would call her periodically and we'd chitchat. Time went on and we lost touch. I moved, my dad moved, and she stopped answering her phone (darn caller ID, she didn't know my new number, so I don't think she was answering my calls because of it).

2000-2006--I would periodically use the internet to look my dad up. Whenever I would go home I would drive around to a few places that I knew my dad would hang out at. I also would go by their old place and ask around if anyone knew him. I had no luck.

August 2010--I continued to do a search on the internet using my dad's name and I came up a hit on facebook. It was my brother. I explained to him who I was and we connected. When he called me told me the bad news...grandmother died in a house fire, his mom died of a stroke a few years later, then dad when crazy, left and no one knows where he is. WOW. I was so shocked and overwhelmed with all the information I didn't know what to think or ask. We stayed in touch and I went to visit him a few months later.

August 2012--I get a call from my brother. He tells me that there is an inheritance that was left for the grandchildren. He asks for our addresses and he lets us know that the lawyer would be sending us some paperwork soon.

December 2012--I get a letter in the mail from a lawyer with information about an estate that grandmother had and a court date. The court date was in a week or so, I didn't get the letter in time because my address was wrong. I call the law firm to correct my address.

January 2013--I get another letter in the mail, but this time it has someone else's information in it. It also has my grandmother's will and some other documents. I call the law firm, tell them that I think I was given the wrong information. They said to either disregard or send it back. I copied it and mailed the paperwork back to them.  I was sent information with the correct paperwork.

February 1, 2013--I decide to write a letter to my other family members that was listed as a beneficiary. I didn't know who this person was and I wanted to reach out to my family. In addition to the letter I sent two pictures of myself.

February 5, 2013--I recieve a call from my cousin as a result of the letter. I call her back and leave her a message.

February 6, 2013--I call my cousin back and she returns my call. All of the information that she gave me is a little jumbled in my head and I'm trying to make since of it all, but this is what she told me....  The house fire that grandmother died in was started in the garage (whew, I though maybe the house fire was from her smoking and falling asleep with a cigarette). My brother was possibly there at the time the fire started. The neighbors say that they saw him there, but when the police and fire department arrived he wasn't there. After the funeral, my dad too his family and left town....didn't stay around to hang out with other family members....just took his $50,000 from the insurance settlement and left town and didn't talk to the family again until years later when he moved up there. When he did move up there, he lost his mind and ended up in a psychiatric hospital. My cousin went on to tell me that my grandmother had over $200,000 in her estate and the executor of the estate (my aunt) had a gambling problem and my dad had a drinking problem. She believes that there something is being covered up and she wants the truth. She has nothing financially to gain because she's not in the will, but she said to me that my grandmother took care of her from the time she was 15 when her mother died, so she knows that there is money somewhere and someone is hiding it.

WOW

I didn't know what to say.

I told her that I would come to visit her soon. She said that there is another court date tomorrow.

I was a little rattled and shaken....

I've been planning a trip to Rockford anyway to visit a friend of mine, but I guess it's gonna be sooner than later.