Sometimes my inspiration and insight comes at the weirdest times or places. Most often, that is in the shower. Yesterday was one of those occasions. In my search for information about my biological father, Edward, I encountered a step sister. She is the daughter of the woman my father married. When I learned about her, I searched social media and cold messaged her (fortunately, she was very accepting). She was gracious enough to listen to my story and, in fact, confirmed her identity as the step daughter of my father. She was already an adult when her mother married my father. We exchanged several messages and are FB friends. She was also nice enough to share some old photos she found and some things she remembered about him.

She sent me some pictures and told me that he worked on a pit crew for a top fuel dragster many years ago and also that he was part owner of a race horse. So, yesterday, I had the idea to Google his name, NHRA pit crew and 1970’s. The second hit from Google was an article written just over two years ago. Of course the article didn’t mention my father or anything, it was an interesting read about the evolution of top fuel cars over the past 50 years. Thankfully, there was an email address at the end of the article of the man who wrote it. I wrote to him and explained who I was and my reason for writing, which was that I wanted to know if someone could identify the car or driver that my father was pictured in. I hit the jackpot because not only did he recognize the car and driver, but he also knew my father back in the day! We exchanged a few messages in which he included another man who knew my father and the actual driver of the car he crewed for. They all described Edward as an “affable” man with a good sense of humor who loved working on or with cars.

So, even though both of my biological parents are now gone, my story is not over yet. Far from it.