As some of
you know, Janelle and I grew up without knowing our father. We were raised by our mom, with the help of
our pretty awesome grandparents, and our aunt Judy. We knew our father’s name, his height, the company
he worked for, that he was originally from Oklahoma, and that he’d been
transferred with his job before he knew (or she knew) that our mom was
pregnant. This was just an accepted
truth.
Then along
comes the internet. Google,
Ancestry.com, Bing…information everywhere.
Except that it was like that saying, “water, water, everywhere, but not
a drop to drink.” How would we ever know
which Monty (Monte) McKee could be the keeper of half of our genetic code? One had died, one was a realtor, one had an
IMDB page, and one was in prison. So
many to pick from! Like a box of
chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get.
Until
September 2, 2011. In January, Janelle
had placed a blurb of information on the McKee surname page of Ancestry.com,
just itemizing the things we knew and if anyone had any information, she’d love
to hear from them. Fast forward to that
September 2 and Janelle calls about midnight my time and speaks words I’d never
really counted on hearing, “I think I found our father.” On speaker phone, so I heard it, Mam and Pap
heard it, and Jocie heard it. I think
all of our jaws hit the floor. As Jocie
and I take inspiration from Bugs Bunny whenever possible, Bugs stopping in his
tracks, saying, “CLUNG!!!” pretty thoroughly summed up the feeling at that
moment. After mining Janelle for
information, I learned about her Ancestry.com blurb and that she’d received a
response from a man claiming to be our dad.
He’d already friended her on Facebook.
We wrote a short email together to the listed address and attempted to
go to sleep.
The next
day brought a flurry of emails back and forth.
Suddenly, we had siblings, other than Janine. Two sisters and two brothers. I’d never had anything but stepbrothers that
I’d never been close to. I, baby of the
family (yeah, by 27 minutes, but that still makes me the baby) was suddenly a
big sister. I had nieces and nephews
that were of the two-legged variety, though I’d imagine there was, at least at
some point, the same amount of drool involved.
I wasn’t sure what to feel. How
does one be a big sister? I have no
practice with this. I’m the baby, damn
it.
It was a
picture of our sister Codie (baby sister, I have a baby sister) that convinced
Janelle. Her blonde hair was dyed brown,
styled like Janelle’s, and she has glasses.
There were/are similarities. I,
however, was not yet convinced and needed more verification. Like calling Maury Povich and having a DNA
day. However, after asking several
questions, this dude answered them all and then some, offering up information my
mother could corroborate. Everyone was
in shock. I, word slinging show off that
I tend to be, could say nothing except, “It’s so weird!” Over and over, to the point my lovely
daughter told me to shut up already.
Sweet kid.
Fast
forward 20 of the craziest (see, I didn’t say weird) days of my existence,
Janelle and I are trading emails back and forth with our dad. He sent us pictures. We talked to him on the phone on his birthday. We’re friends with our brothers on Facebook. So far, Wavil is pretty funny and Ryan
watches a LOT of football. I’ve also
found a strange delight in picking on him and his Libertarian ideas and my
Republican father’s ideas of what’s funny (like sending him the link disproving
his disparaging Democratic forward…too fun!).
There’s a lot more to be learned and a lot to share. It’s only been 20 days, but I just figured it’s
time to introduce you all to the other keeper of mine and Janelle’s genetic
code. Watch out world, here’s Monty
McKee…my dad.
Oh, and, p.s., he was the IMDB guy. The one I’d always dismissed outright. There he was.
He worked on the Wedding Singer. “Holiday. Celebrate.”
I bet he could never have guessed the torrent of lines I know from that
movie that I throw out on a regular basis.
Oh, and Robin Hood Men in Tights.
Oh, Mel Brooks, how I love thee. Let
me count the commandments.
