Lesley Staite's Quest for her G.I. father, John Chermack-Powell (7)

The pictures came – I scanned them and e-mailed them for my mother to see. She recognized him right away, that was her John with the foreign sounding name. How could I know for sure when he was known all these years by a different surname. He misled my mother!! 

Sally from GITRACE suggested that I send pictures to a GITRACE member, Bob, who did picture overlays to see if there were facial similarities. I sent pictures I had from Johns sister Clara, a picture I got from friend Bobby in Texas, and a picture of me when I was 5/6 years old and a recent one of me.

My Contact came through in spades !!  – the pictures from the 2 different sources were of the same man – and guess what – the overlays of this  'John' and me fit perfectly – Bob saying he had never had such a perfect match – this was my father !!! Wow – the excitement in my family – could it be true, after all this mis information, wrong pathways taken in my search was this possible? Yes it was. I knew who I looked like,   I had found my dad!!!!  Questions questions, if he wasn't killed in the war, why did he not come back for me, did he ever think of me growing up, did he ever think about if he had grandchildren. All questions that went through my mind – I will never know the answer, but I can go forward with what I have knowing who I am, who I look like and my new family.

I am in contact with my 'new side' of the family, who have welcomed me with open arms, and I have visited my fathers grave.. What a warm and secure feeling. Now I do feel like a whole person, I know who I am, my heritage, my background, my medical history, but most of all I know who I am ..

Lesley