Published: 16 Apr 2020
Mike had left the kitchen to answer the doorbell as I was helping the twins, Tom and Jerry, grind up the saltines we were going to use as the “bread” in our stuffing. Mom had Logan and Scott removing the meat from the sausage casings to also add to the stuffing and Larry had gone with Mike to see who was at the door.
After answering the door Mike came up to me and whispered to me that Mr. Lane and a policeman wanted to talk to us in private. I asked Mom if she would watch the boys for a while, that Mike and I had a couple of visitors to see privately, and I’d tell her all about it as soon as I knew what it was all about. Mike and I took our guests to the home office which was the room just past the laundry room.
Mr. Lane started off as soon as we were all seated and he apologized for them arriving without calling, and on the afternoon before the holiday, but something had happened that day they thought we should know about right away.
It seems a man had arrived at the DCFS dormitory in Springfield and made inquiries about his sons, Bill and Scott. The staff there had said he was not combative or disorderly, he seemed to be sincere in his inquiry, and the staff at the front desk followed protocol and had him fill out forms for each of his sons asking for whatever information he could give them on his sons. The caseworker who had handled Bill’s adoption was no longer with the agency, but Lucas had handled Scott’s case (with help from Carole) and when the forms were passed on to him he took them to Carole and they then went to their supervisor, who informed them that Bill was now considered an adult and could be contacted to see if he wanted any contact with his birth father and that in Scott’s case his adoptive fathers would have to be contacted to see if they wanted any contact between their son and his birth father to occur, since he was still underaged.
The officer spoke up then and said he had gotten a call from Mr. Lane a few hours ago and he had given the officer some information about Mr. Denver and after checking the police databases and reviewing the information there he had called Mr. Lane to report that since the jail time the man did for impregnating one of his students the man had lived an exemplary life. Yes, he now had no family, but after not being able to get another teaching position anywhere, he had spent the last several years teaching in the State’s jails and prisons, helping inmates get their high school degrees and tutoring those enrolled in college courses. He had never remarried, he lived a mostly solitary life in a suburb of Worcester, the second largest city in Massachusetts, and he spent his days and many evenings holding classes or tutoring in the State’s jails and prisons.
Mike and I were speechless at that point. My mind had several things running through it, one being that he most likely did not know about me, and what was he looking for his sons for, and why at the DCFS facility, didn’t he know his sons had been adopted out? Mr. Lane had some of those answers, he told us that Mr. Denver had indeed signed off on his parental rights when he was incarcerated. Mr. Lane thought that now that some time had elapsed, he was probably feeling a great deal of remorse and wanted to get in touch with at least his older son, well, the one he thought was his oldest, Bill.
It was time to bring at least Bill into our conversation. I called over to the breeding farm next door and asked Jeff, who answered the phone, if Bill and Brad were there and he turned the phone over to Bill. We had asked the four men over there for Thanksgiving dinner the next day, all four of them were spending the next day with us, they would be spending the Christmas holiday with their parents. After a brief explanation to Bill he agreed to come right over, but he insisted that Brad accompany him.
Once they had arrived Mr. Lane and the officer explained to them more fully what had happened that afternoon at the DCFS facility. As Mike and I listened to this re-cap I realized that the man, my father, had acted like any man trying to get information about what had happened to his children after they had become wards of the state years ago. Whether he was entitled to specific details of the subsequent adoptions or not was the question, and of course whether the children involved wanted to be put in touch with their birth father was another. We thanked the two men for the information they had brought us, but told them we would need more time to digest all they had shared with us before we could give them an answer as to what we wanted to happen, we would most likely have an answer for them after the holiday weekend, once we had a chance to talk it all out, and to bring Scott into our discussions also.
We thanked the men for their concern and for the information they had shared with us. Mr. Lane let us know that he now had some contact information for us should we decide to contact Mr. Denver.
Then the four of us went back to the home office and talked for about another half hour, Bill telling us that his earliest memories of his father were all good ones, but his later memories of him, starting about the age of nine or ten, were very mixed. At times his father was friendly and loving, but other times he was vocally abusive and downright mean. He remembered how his parents would argue for hours on end, and other days they wouldn’t even talk to each other. We agreed to talk more over the next day or two before bringing Scott into our discussions.
We two couples did talk about the situation after our Thanksgiving dinner the next day. We had taken all the kids down to the stable to give out treats to the horses and ponies and while the older boys kept a close eye on the younger ones, we talked, but always keeping an eye on the kids. We finally decided to get Scott in on our discussion, to see if he had any interest in meeting his birth father, frankly it was something I wanted to do, even if he didn’t know about me yet, but something kept telling me that maybe he wasn’t much changed from the way he was when Bill was just twelve and he tried to convince others that Bill was the one who impregnated his student, not him. Of course, that infant was Scott. We all agreed we would get Scott involved the next day, maybe just ask him to join us in the office so our talk with him would be private.
So, on Saturday afternoon we four sat with Scott and explained what we knew at that point about our birth father. Scott was seated between Mike and me on the love seat and Bill and Brad were on the one across from us. Scott had listened to us and then turned to me and asked why he needed to see the man, after all, Mike and I were his fathers and he loved us. I assured him that he wasn’t going away anywhere, he was our son, and we both loved him totally, but we older guys had some questions we wanted the man to answer, but if Scott didn’t, that was OK., he didn’t even have to meet or talk to the man. Nestled between Mike and me he pondered that and then said he might have a question for the man, but he wasn’t going anywhere, he loved living with us and his brothers.
The little guy had a thoughtful look on his face as he said he had to think about it, but right now there wasn’t anything he had to ask his birth father, but he looked so serious when he spoke about loving Mike and me and his brothers that I felt a bit emotional and when he hugged us dads before going back to be with his brothers, I saw a tear on Mike’s cheek.
We four adults consented that a meeting with Mr. Denver was agreed upon, we just had to pick a neutral place and time to do this. We agreed to let Lucas handle the arrangements, he was the most neutral person, outside of Mr. Lane, and we wanted at least Lucas there, but having a lawyer present might send the wrong impression. So, after talking to Lucas on Monday he agreed to set up a meeting, and he was sure if we made it for later in the afternoon on a weekday he was sure that a conference room at the DCFS facility in Springfield would be made available to us.
Three days later, after we were all home from school, Lucas called and asked if Friday, at 4:40 in the afternoon would be good for us to come to Springfield to meet with Mr. Denver. I told him that it would be a good time for us, but we would have to check with Bill, and Lucas related that he had spoken with Bill and he had asked if he and Brad would be able to ride with Scott and Mike and me, then he’d be willing to meet with our father then. So, it was arranged. Mike and I told Scott after dinner and we three sat and wrote out our questions for Mr. Denver. Mike told us that we might not remember those items important to each of us under the circumstances and this way we would have a reminder of what we thought was most important to us in our pockets. Scott wouldn’t show us his questions, but he seemed so sure of himself we didn’t push him to show us, after all he was old enough to understand any answer he, or the rest of us got from the man, and there was no obligation on our part to see the man again, ever.
Mike and I talked a lot that night, and the next day and night. I was so conflicted. On one hand he had impregnated my mother, but it was unknown if she even had a chance to tell him that before he had returned to Denver at the end of his classes at the Community College of the Keys. We had figured out that she had looked for him at the wrong college and we felt there had been no further contact between them after he had left Key West. But after his incarceration he had had relations with his former wife, impregnated her again (with Scott), and left the family alone, after not being able to secure a job. As Bill had told us, it was a bad period, his father had severe mood swings and had, as far as he knew, never tried to contact them again.
What we did know was that Bill and Scott’s mother had died of carbon monoxide poisoning, along with her parents, three years later and the boys were put in the care of the state and that their father had relinquished his paternal rights at that time. We all agreed on the drive to Springfield that we would give the man time to state his reasons for trying to find Bill and Scott before any of us would question him further.
Lucas greeted us in the lobby and showed us to a small conference room where we would all meet Mr. Denver. We didn’t have long to wait for him; he was shown to the room even before we were all seated at the table. We five, Brad and Bill, Mike and I, with Scott seated between us two couples. Lucas took a chair at one end of the table and we left the other side for Mr. Denver.
Patty from the front office showed him in and left us. He was alone, there was no one with him and he took in our group as Lucas stood to greet him. To me he looked kind of afraid, but also determined. As Lucas introduced us he clasped everyone’s hand, until it became my turn. By then everyone at the table could see I was a younger version of the man in front of us. Even as our hands were still clasped, he abruptly sat down in the chair across from our group, an almost stunned look on his face. We did release each other’s hand and I regained my seat and then introduced my husband, Mike, to him.
After Mike and he shook hands we all sat in silence for a few moments until Lucas cleared his throat. Mr. Denver then did the same and addressed me and asked who my mother was, but then also asked me how old I was. Once I mentioned my mother was from Key West, and I was now 25, he knew immediately who my mother was. As he explained it, back then she was the only girl he had dated since he had been in high school. He said, as he sat there, that had he known she was pregnant, everything would have turned out so different, he would have gladly married her and they would have been happy, he thought very happy together. But his parents had wanted him back in Colorado and he had returned and re-entered the University of Denver so they would continue paying his tuition. He sounded deeply sincere, but strangely I felt no big connection to him.
He then turned to Bill and apologized to him for the accusation he had made about him impregnating his student, he offered nothing by way of explanation, other than he had cheated on his wife and had begun to take drugs, and just wasn’t in his right mind when it all occurred. He tried to explain that he was sorry and that after his 8 year jail sentence he had been determined to make up with his ex-wife and regain his little family, and things started out alright, but he screwed up again after drying out in jail and reverted to using drugs again as he tried to obtain a teaching position. He turned to Scott and told him how sorry he was that he wasn’t there for him at the beginning of his life. He hadn’t even known about him until his wife had filed for divorce.
The divorce was granted, he had to find a way to pay his child support payments and a small alimony, so when his parole officer recommended he begin teaching within the jails and prisons of the state he took the job and began to attend NAR ANON meetings, (like the meetings for people with alcohol abuse problems, these groups help people with drug abuse problems). He was presently six years dry and stated he no longer drank alcohol and no longer had a drug abuse problem. He also admitted that his sleeping around was the direct result of him trying to convince himself and others that he was straight. His therapy sessions while incarcerated made him see that he really was a gay man, and he was now trying to live like a responsible gay adult male should. No, he had no significant other at the moment, but he did hope to have one before too long.
He had to see for himself that the boys he had abandoned had turned out alright, and he saw that they had, even the one he had not known about. He told us that the fact that two of his sons were in same sex marriages told him that his sons were smarter, and more secure within themselves, and braver than he was at our ages. He did not want to interrupt our lives in any way, he stated, all he wanted was to assure himself that his offspring were in secure and happy homes and were each living a good life. Both Scott and Bill looked to me, and I spoke up and assured the man that had fathered us that we three were very happy with the way our lives were going now, it was in our earlier years we all had suffered to one degree or another. We had each survived those screwed up years and now found ourselves to be friends and brothers who loved each other as such and were very close to each other. All of us had had our questions answered, before we had a chance to ask them.
Before the meeting we had all agreed in the car on the way there that we would not divulge where we all lived or our financial circumstances right off the bat. If later on we decided to, we would tell him at subsequent meetings if they were to occur. We had not yet received a report from the private investigator Mr. Lane had contacted, and we wanted to know what that would reveal before opening up totally to him.
Our meeting finished, we wished him well, after he had wished us happiness in our lives himself and Lucas escorted him back to the reception desk and watched as he signed himself out of the facility, and as he walked out to the parking lot out front.
We chatted with Lucas for another half hour when he returned to the conference room, and then as we also signed ourselves out and made our way to our vehicle to make our way home, we all seemed pleased that Mr. Denver hadn’t made a scene in the meeting. Leaving the parking lot, I noticed Mr. Denver sitting and crying in his car just a few parking spaces from ours. I admit the sight of him sitting behind the steering wheel of his car and weeping got to me, but I drove on. The man had put us through years of tears, it was his turn now.
The next Monday Mr. Lane called in the late afternoon and I had answered the phone. He asked me if I wanted a copy of the private detective’s report faxed to me and I asked him to send it, we’d have a chance after dinner to look it over. I told Mike and we thought we’d look it over by ourselves first before letting Bill and Scott see it.
After everyone else had turned in for the night Mike and I went to our home office and retrieved the report from the fax machine. I ran off another copy and handed the three pages of the copy to Mike and we sat next to each other and read our own copies. The investigator had done a very thorough job. The report started with Mr. Denver’s school years and right up to the present. It was pretty much as the man himself had described his life to us during our meeting, but the investigation had expanded somewhat on his life after Mr. Denver had been released from jail. The PI enumerated how much money the man earned teaching in the jails and prisons (much less that a public school teacher), how much he paid for an efficiency apartment just outside Worcester, his estimated tax return for the past seven years, what he paid for the used car he drove and for its upkeep. He might have been able to just get by, but he had a habit of taking in some of his students after they completed their jail sentences and helping them get back on their feet, virtually supporting them for the months he had them stay with him until they were again able to support themselves and stand on their own two feet again.
He didn’t date, he didn’t drink, and he didn’t do drugs. The man even found time to volunteer with the Big Brothers association. Interviews with some of the jail and prison employees revealed that Mr. Denver was a well-respected, and well-liked employee by the institution’s staff and inmates alike. Interviews with several neighbors and local shopkeepers revealed the same, he was a well-respected and well-liked man. I read all that and thought of the last time I had seen him, huddled over his steering wheel in his car, crying his eyes out, and I felt rotten for him. I was suddenly brought to tears and I turned to Mike, only to see him weeping as he finished reading his copy of the report, he turned to me and we were in each other’s arms in a flash.
Yes, Mike and I had each other to lean on when needed, we ran a successful and profitable business enterprise together, we took care of our family together, we loved our sons equally and wouldn’t know what to do without our loved ones and friends around us. Considering all that, plus our wealth, we knew we had to do something to help this man out. Oh, we hashed it out for days, tossing one scenario out and developing another a minute later, but what we ended up doing, after speaking with Scott and Bill and Brad, was setting up an anonymous charity which would take on all of Mr. Denver’s expenses except for his normal day to day expenses. This charity would establish a residential halfway house, complete with meal services and staff to allow the former inmates a place to integrate back into society with job placement services and counseling when needed, all headed up by Mr. Denver along with a good and reasonable salary for him and each of his staff. Should he still want to teach in the state’s jails and prisons, that opportunity would still be available to him, but he would now be able to hire other teachers to take some of his workload off his shoulders.
The charity was to be an anonymous one and when we had Mr. Lane set it all up, even his location would not be revealed. In no way did we want our father to know where this financial backing was coming from. By the end of that year everything was set up, the charitable foundation was in place and the meetings between our birth father and a lawyer subcontracted by Mr. Lane handled everything for us.
We had a great Christmas. As a special treat Jan and Matt joined us, arriving a few days before and they stayed until New Year’s Day with us. The boys all loved having another set of Uncles to ride with, and Jan told me that they loved having the boys to spend time with. They were looking forward to meeting a potential foster son when they returned home to Key West. They had passed all their parenting and fostering classes but as of yet nothing had been set up, but the case worker assigned to them had told them in private that she knew of a situation that would mean their services would be needed by the middle of January. They looked upon staying with us as being like a trial run for them.
By the first of the new year we began to see in the papers and on the TV news that an anonymous benefactor had funded a new halfway house program and an education fund for prisoners and ex-cons, to be overseen by a Mr. Denver from the Worcester area. The man who fathered Bill, Scott and I looked fifteen years younger on the TV during his interviews. The man next to him during those interviews was introduced as his assistant and a former Deputy Sheriff for the State. They were both expecting to live in the halfway house along with those released inmates who qualified for the programs they were setting up. They looked good together.
Two months later I hired the private investigator again. I was wondering just how our birth father was doing, now he had funds, and programs in place to help out those who had little or no hope while they had been incarcerated. I couldn’t even justify it to myself, let alone to Mike, but he was the one who mentioned using the private investigator again, so I did. The report from him detailed what a typical day and week was like for Mr. Denver, and I was quite impressed by what I read, and Mike was right next to me on the sofa, reading right along with me.
It seems some of the funds had been used to purchase a twelve-room old Victorian in a mixed use neighborhood just inside the downtown area of Worcester. The house had been used as a rooming house and had several bedrooms and bathrooms. Within three weeks there were six men living there, along with Mr. Denver and his assistant, the former Deputy Sheriff. The PI report stated that the residents had classes twice a day, and that each one had a four to six-hour shift in local businesses. Two at a mom and pop grocery, one at a fast food restaurant, one at the local branch of the City’s library, one with a local builder, and one at the neighborhood gas station. Mr. Denver still taught classes at the city jail, and had four teachers working for the charity that taught up to the highschool level in the outlaying jails and prisons.
His assistant took care of the halfway house and prepared most of the meals there, with the residents helping him on a rotating basis. It certainly looked like the program was off to a really good start. The residents related to him how their lives were going in the right direction for the first time since they had been incarcerated, and how much they owed to the gay couple who were supervising their residence, and making sure they were receiving the education they needed to succeed in their lives.
It was very gratifying to see that Mr. Denver had turned his life around. He had turned his life’s goals around and was benefiting society by doing so, educating those willing to accept the challenge and turn their own lives around, while living in a safe environment with people who obviously cared about them. Mike and I talked about it for a few more days and we decided to boost our original endowment to the new organization by enough that it created some more media buzz, which, as we had hoped, generated more individual donations, as well as some hefty corporate donations that with the right management would provide for years and years of funding for the programs already proving to be successful.
It proved to be a successful year for the horse breeding operation that Jeff and Jim were running next door, with an over six figure income for just the first 6 months of operation, and the bookings for the next year were looking good already. Jeff and Jim had graduated in late Spring and Bill and Brad had completed their Junior year at the University having transferred in to be able to complete their four year degrees, they would only have one more year of studies before they too graduated. It would only be three more years before Logan and Blake graduated from high school.
Our school to condo conversion project in Key West was completed and more than half the units were sold to full time residents of the Southernmost city. Jan and Matt were getting settled in with their ten year old foster son, and to hear them talk, all three of them couldn’t wait for Spring when they were hoping their petition for adoption would be heard in family court.
Sam and Carole were the proud parents of a seven-pound baby boy, which they named Johnathan, after Grandpa, and Katie was a very proud older sister. Tom and Jerry, our energetic twins, were getting ready for Summer and wanted to take more advanced riding lessons at the big riding school in town like a lot of their classmates in second grade took during the Summer.
Scott loved hanging around with us and his brother Bill and his partner Brad. If he wasn’t over at the breeding stables with them, he was sitting with Mike and me going over our investment accounts and the budgeting for the operations under our care. He had a great analytical mind and was a math wizard, he was most likely the one to follow in our footsteps.
Mom and Dad were still running the homestead, still in good health and remember, Mom is always right and she is not to be ignored! She just told me to take my laptop back into the office and then come back to set the table for dinner, reminding me that everyone would be home for dinner tonight, and she had three pans of lasagna in the oven already. So that is it for now folks, Mom has spoken, and I always do what she tells me to do.
The End
Editor’s notes: Now comes the time for me to ask when we will see another wonderful story about the fine families we have come to know and love.
Sorry it took me so long to get back to this. I thought I had finished it and sent it back to the webmaster to post, but somehow, I must have set it aside or had it close on me when my computer had an update from our friends at Macro slough.
In any case, I got a gentle reminder about it, and realized I hadn’t finished it.
Of course, it will be nice to read more whenever a new story appears.
Your Friend,
Darryl AKA The Radio RancherWe hope that you enjoyed this sequel. You may contact Art by email: ArtWest at CastleRoland dot Net
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