"The Orphan Train" by Patricia E. Watts
– longing for family
Separated as children, a relentless desire to find one another spawned a frustrating search.
Patricia E. Watts lives in Mountville, South Carolina where the love of local and family history has given her a passion to write stories to pass down to her children. She has found through stories of tragedies, tears, and triumphs and even mysteries that she has a rich heritage worth telling. Her story “A Real Small Town” appeared in the 2020 Personal Story Publishing Project, That Southern Thing.
Author’s Talk
Patricia Watts
The story of my dad and his brother finding each other has always been a compelling story to me, one that has tugged at my heart for many years. A story of two brothers, separated by circumstances beyond their control. And both haunted by the same wish of one day finding that missing sibling. Then what seemed like an impossible task for each brother was solved by an incredible twist of fate and timing. It came so close to not happening.
Bringing their families together was indescribable joy. The brothers soon discovered they had married women that could have passed for sisters. They each had a toddler the same age. Both wives were expecting their second child and those babies were born just 10 days apart. (My cousin and I were both in the womb when the brothers found each other which was just in time for my cousin to be given my dad’s middle name). Talk about timing!
So, they were my inspiration for writing the story of the longed-for reunion of my Uncle Roy and my dad, Howard Edgeman, a reunion that continued for many happy years. — Patricia E. Watts
