This is a follow-up to my Earthquake post (click here if you didn’t see that post).
I am so excited/relieved/ecstatic/thrilled/nervous right now I just can’t even put into words!!! I don’t care if anyone reads this or not; I just had to write about it to get it off my chest so I can calm down a little…
Since the guy (we’ll call him Jack) that I got into contact with didn’t know where she (we’ll call her Jill) was buried, since then I have spent hours and hours researching Jill and couldn’t find anything. I finally found her maiden name and then found an obituary of her dad. I knew she was buried in her hometown in Pennsylvania; I just didn’t know which town that was. The obituary that I found of her father contained lots of names, so I did research on each name. I found about 5 family members on Facebook and sent them all messages. I never heard back from any of them. So then I sent out about 30 letters to all the different addresses I could find for each of the family members this past Friday. I tried not to make my letter too upsetting, because I would imagine I would at least be a little upset (or just surprised/shocked) if I heard from someone 12 years later that witnessed the death of one of my family members. In my letter I put my email address asking if they could get in contact with me. Just 30 minutes ago I got an email from Jill’s oldest sister. She told me which town she was buried in and that the family never got details of what happened. I couldn’t imagine what the family has gone through all this time not knowing exactly what happened. Anyway, she seemed very nice and wanted to help in any way she could and understood the need for closure. I just emailed her back and am waiting to hear back from her.
Finally, after all these years, it’s like a big weight has started to lift off my chest 
Update:
So, Jill’s sister emailed me back and told me that Jack and Jill were engaged when the accident happened. But, one month after Jill died, Jack was already married to someone else. Wow! I couldn’t believe it. This makes sense as to why he had no clue where she was buried. It made me sad for her. Her family’s biggest concern was that she didn’t have any family with her when she died. Her sister told me that Jill had a daughter, which was then raised by Jill’s dad, who then passed away in 2009. I just can’t imagine dealing with that much loss at such a young age, but the sister told me she has grown into a wonderful young lady. She was glad that I contacted her and we plan on meeting and talking whenever I visit.
Related Posts:
Earthquake (in more ways than one)…8/23/11
Off to Pennsylvania…(hopefully sometime in the near future)…9/12/11
WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is fantastic! There’s been some heavy vibes running in my head over the last day or so . . . . . thought I would just check in on your site to see if you had posted anything, and WOW! I’m so glad I did. I know you’ve got to be ecstatic! And look at the closure that YOU can provide to them! If you are looking for a Pennsylvania road-trip partner, consider me in!
This is wonderful! I’m so excited for you! I can only imagine the surprise the family must be feeling right now too! This is going to be a type of closure for them as well…they’ll finally have some insite as to the loss of their loved one. Can’t wait to hear more as the story unfolds!
She did say she was very surprised to hear from me, but it comforted her to know that someone else was there and that I cared enough to contact the family. We’ve already planned to meet and talk whenever I go up there. It feels like I’m living in some story in a book!
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