Seattle Connection

     Following that Friday night I called a couple of my brothers or their wives and introduced myself.  I then called Howard Selden, Helene's husband and told him my story.  I had found out more information once I met Grandma such such as Helene and Howard's Marriage certificate from Washington which gave his address as the "USS Portland"

    He listened very politely and then hit me up the side the head(on the phone) with one sentence.  "That is a very interesting story but I married Helene in 1944 (June as I recall) and she was not pregnant nor have a child in 1944"....That kind of threw me for a loop,  and all I could do was appologize for bothering him and penitently hang up.

    Something really didn't make sense....So I wandered up Bridge street to the SOSC library where I wandered into the History section and (#2 irony) found a book on Naval ship movements during WWII.  I had his ship name, USS Portland, and it was listed as having come into Mare Island NSY the end of January 1944....And having left for the Philippine Islands in August.  The USS Portland didn't return Stateside until 1945.

    Armed with a few other facts such as on their marriage license in Renton, Washington his address was the Portland AND her address was the same as the one on my illgotten birth certificate.  I could only come up with one conclusion...When Howard came into port my mom was already pregnant with me.  AND she hid that fact from him until he shipped out.  She was living in Vallejo and visiting Providence Hospital in Oakland who handled the adoption two months later.  She was a small woman and probably didn't "show" prominently until later in term. My wife Diana similarly showed with our first child, Veronica.  

    My next step was to try to meet Howard in person at his home in Federal Way, Washington.  I walked up to his door and requested to talk.  Again he was very polite and listened to my story along with what data I had on hand.  He never accepted me as Helene's son but he did acknowledge one thing at the end of that visit.  He said "It could have happened the way you relate it because when I left Mare Island  she was working at one restaurant and when I returned (some eight months later) she had changed jobs to another restaurant"  Hardly a proof statement, for sure, but back then you didn't get maternity leave.  You just quit when the time was due.

    Over the ensuing years Michael, Jerry, and Richard came to accept me as the real deal, but Howard never did.

    About six months or so after first meeting Avo Amelia we had a visit in Ashland from her helpers, Carl and Virginia Mickleson.  Avo had sent them to meet me as they were on a road trip North from Antioch.  In our conversation Ginny was telling me a story from several months before I first met Avo Amelia.  Ginny walked in on Avo one day while she was praying the Rosary.  Ginny asked her for what she was praying?  Carl and Ginny were Christians but not so familiar with the Catholic Rosary.  Avo Amelia told her that " she was praying to someday meet the grandchild she never knew"!!  WOW!  So I knew another trip South was in store soon.  

    In my previous conversations with her this story had never come up And I did have some concerns about the story so far.  Meaning that here was my 87ish old grandmother who made No qualms about her intense dislike for Howard as she blamed him for her only daughters untimely passing.  Helene died at home from alcoholic complications in 1970.  She was a tiny lady who married into a party focused Navy officer's life.  This could have led her to accept me as an alternative family path.  As wierd as that sounds, this latest story comes from a third party related before I first showed up at her door that  Friday night.

    On my next chance to go South I assked Avo Amelia to tell me the whole story.  She related that at somepoint, in the Spring of 1944, Helene visited her home.  Amelia could tell she was pregnant but she never asked and Helene never voluntered anything !??   Several months later Helene again visited, this time not pregnant.  Amelia never asked and Helene never elucidated, Again!?? Very strange to me but that just seemed to be the privacy thing between them... 

    To Be Continued:

       This is the first family tree I put together some thirty years ago.  At the time only including my Portuguise connection