My story of finding my brother continues through marriage, divorce, serious illness and a second marriage that will bring to him a connection to the father he never knew.
When Franz was 19 years old he met Monique at a dance and they began to go out together. One day Monique informed Franz that she was pregnant. Franz knew what it was like to grow up without a father and decided not to let that happen to his child. Franz and Monique were married in 1959. Shortly after that their daughter Olivia was born. Franz and Monique had a second child, Eric, in 1961.
Early in their marriage Franz got a job working for a bank. He had to leave that position to enter the armed services. He left for Algeria to fight for the French. Upon his return he went back to work. It was during this period that Franz made the attempt to find his father. Though Franz’s colleague went to America and found our family, When Franz sent a letter to that address it was returned “Addressee Unknown”. He did nothing else about finding his father. He had assumed that his father wasn’t interested.
In 1977, Franz and Monique divorced.
Franz worked for banks for most of his life. He concluded his career at Barclays Bank where he was responsible for stock services in Paris. He retired in 1998.
In 1991 Franz met Cathy, a woman with two daughters of her own, Emmanuelle, age 9, and Laura, age 5. In 1999 Franz and Cathy were married. Cathy believed in family and thought it was important for family to be part of one’s life. Franz had shared with Cathy the picture and story of his father. It was only through unguarded moments with the help of some wine that she understood how important it would be for him to find his father and his extended family.
A major change in their lives took place in 2008. Franz was diagnosed with liver cancer. Luckily he was treated for it and recovered. However, in the process of having surgery things went wrong and his heart stopped. Franz had a stroke during surgery. Recovery took a long time. It took him 6 months to re-learn how to walk. Cathy considered it miraculous that he recovered. “It made sense that he was still alive, he still had things to do and to live for on earth.” She decided that one who had known much sorrow all his life must also have the right to happiness and she was going to help him find his roots.
For Cathy it was a difficult task. She didn’t want to give Franz any false hope, so without him knowing she enlisted the help of Michel Oustric, the president of the association she worked for, who had a passion for genealogy. Through his enthusiasm for genealogy and willingness to help Cathy, he spent much time researching and documenting information about Franz’s father.
In searching out Franz’s father, Michel discovered information about Walter Heilbrun’s journey to America and he discovered a connection to me. He was confident that I was the son of Walter Heilbrun. He found my storytelling videos and my website, “Tell Me a Story” online. Armed with documents and a USB drive full of information, he shared this with Cathy.
Cathy took all of the information in. She watched my videos over and over. Even though she could not understand everything I was saying she knew that this could be the connection that Franz was looking for. But how was she going to speak to Franz about it? Could she risk disappointing him again, should this be wrong? My story videos were resounding in her head telling her to let Franz know. So one day she shared Michel’s findings and asked Franz if it would be okay to try and get in touch with me. Franz knew from Michel’s information that his father was no longer alive, but he let her go ahead anyway and gave permission to make contact.
The next problem was how to get in touch with me. She could have obtained my e-mail address from my webpage, but instead decided it would be better to send a message through Facebook. Cathy was on Facebook and knew I had a Facebook page also. She sent a private message to me. She hated writing the letter in French, but thought that if it was going to happen, language wasn’t going to be an obstacle.
On November 19, 2012 Cathy sent a private message to me:
“Bonjour,
Je reconstitue l’arbre généalogique de mon mari et il se trouve que j’ai retrouvé une photo avec une adresse sur Atlanta d’ un certain Kurt et de son frère Walter HEILBRUN. Sont-ils de votre famille? Merci beaucoup pour votre aide pour ma recherche car lui aussi a besoin de connaitre ses origines. Son prénom est Franz, Elie. Et nous demeurons en France dans le département du Val d’Oise dans le nord de Paris. A très bientôt j’espère Catherine”
“Hello,
I am reconstructing the family tree of my husband and it turns out that I found a picture with an address in Atlanta of Kurt and his brother Walter Heilbrun. Are they your family? Thank you very much for your help with my research because he also needs to know his origins. His first name is Franz, Elie. And we live in France in the section of Val d’Oise in northern Paris. Be in touch very soon I hope. Catherine”
Because the message she used was a little obscure and wasn’t from one of my “Friends”, Facebook placed it not in my Message folder but in the “Other” folder. This was a folder on Facebook that I didn’t know existed and would not discover for some time. Franz and Cathy would not hear from me until July of 2013 when thanks to an article in the New York Times by technology writer David Poque, I discover the letter Cathy wrote hidden in the “Other” folder on Facebook.
During those interim 8 months there was much despair. Franz was retired and home by himself while Cathy was disenchanted with her job. It appeared that fate had walked away from them again. Cathy decided to leave her employment to spend more time with Franz. It was time for them to have more time together, get their house remodeled and to go on a vacation for 2 months.
A miracle had happened once before in Franz’s life when he survived cancer and a stroke, now it was time for the next miracle in his life. On July 18, 2013, I wrote back to Cathy.
————————
Wait – when is the next installment???? Eagerly awaiting…
N