News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Linda Boyer and Stan Steiner were united after a lifetime of separation.
For 67-year-old Linda Boyer Monday, September 10 was a very special day: It was the day that she first laid eyes on her brother.
She'd known since she was 9 years old that she had a brother somewhere in the world, and in recent years she had wondered about him, but she didn't know a birth date or have any other leads to go on.
"My mother got pregnant before she ever met and married my father and she had to give him up because she didn't have anyone to help her," Boyer explained.
Contact with 71-year-old Stan Steiner happened from his end, less than two weeks ago. The two had talked on the phone and Stan and his wife, Becky, decide to trek north from California in their RV.
Boyer sat on the porch at her house in The Pines talking with The Nugget on Monday afternoon, a big smile on her face, her eyes on the street in front of her, awaiting the arrival of a Jeep carrying her brother.
"So, this'll be the first time I've laid eyes on him," she said. "I'm excited."
Steiner arrived shortly thereafter, bearing flowers and a hug for his sister.
The first-time meeting was made possible by the remarkable advance of commercial DNA testing. Steiner indicated that he didn't have a particular burning need to know.
"I've had an excellent life and the people that raised me were good people," he said.
Steiner was one of two children adopted by his family. His adoptive sister connected with her mother shortly after high school. Stan's efforts to connect with family took quite a while longer. He made some inquiries back in the 1990s, interested in health considerations that might be revealed by understanding his ancestry. But getting adoption records opened proved to be a legal hassle, and Steiner let it go.
One of his daughters, however, stayed on the matter.
"She's the one that just wouldn't let it go," Steiner said.
The daughter gifted her dad with Ancestry.com services for his 70th birthday. Steiner "spit in the cup and sent it off," at least intrigued by what would come of it.
Eventually, he got a hit on relatives.
"My mother's half-sister is who we connected with," he said. "And it was on."
Linda was visibly delighted to welcome her brother and sister-in-law to her Sisters home, where they plan to visit for a few days.
What is this period of discovery like for Stan?
"Weird," he said with a chuckle.
"I've been thinking about it all my life as a wonderment," he reflected.
Driving up from California, he told his wife he wasn't sure what he felt about it all.
"I'm still dazed," he said. "I'm just kind of taking it
all in."
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Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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