WEBVTT - CHAPTER TEN: The Reunion 0:00:03.520 --> 0:00:05.400 Previously on Hello John Doe. 0:00:06.720 --> 0:00:08.680 I would like to know who my dad is. I 0:00:08.720 --> 0:00:12.080 found out I potentially had another sister through the Brandenburg side, 0:00:12.520 --> 0:00:15.960 but they were all connected to the Brandenburg except me. 0:00:16.480 --> 0:00:18.320 Philip, Steedhm and Patterson. You should have had your butt 0:00:18.320 --> 0:00:22.400 here because your sisters love you. He wants those answers. 0:00:22.600 --> 0:00:24.319 We're going to do everything we can and as a 0:00:24.320 --> 0:00:26.920 family to help him get those answers. 0:00:31.880 --> 0:00:35.920 At this point, Steve still hadn't met Sandy, his biological mom, 0:00:36.080 --> 0:00:38.960 and he had no plans to, but he had met 0:00:38.960 --> 0:00:42.200 plenty of people related to Sandy. In our last chapter, 0:00:42.400 --> 0:00:45.000 the Brandenburg sisters wanted to accept him into their fold, 0:00:45.520 --> 0:00:48.200 even though DNA test showed they didn't share the same father. 0:00:49.360 --> 0:00:52.800 Now that Brandyburger's ruled out, Steve really wanted an answer 0:00:52.840 --> 0:00:56.680 to what man helped make him him. You want to 0:00:56.720 --> 0:00:58.639 find your father, right, or at least I know who 0:00:58.640 --> 0:01:01.320 he is, know who he is, at least find out. Yeah, 0:01:01.840 --> 0:01:04.800 that's one of my biggest things. I needed to ask 0:01:04.840 --> 0:01:08.039 an expert, So I call Carol Silecki, who's been with 0:01:08.080 --> 0:01:13.320 the Dough Network for years. She got involved after her 0:01:13.360 --> 0:01:17.319 ex husband disappeared in nineteen eighty nine. He was missing 0:01:17.360 --> 0:01:20.000 almost twenty years before he matched with a John Doe 0:01:20.120 --> 0:01:23.840 who had drowned what's snorkeling in Florida. Carol has always 0:01:23.880 --> 0:01:27.360 loved genealogy and ancestry, but she also had a stepfather 0:01:27.360 --> 0:01:30.039 who was adopted as a baby and a. 0:01:30.040 --> 0:01:33.200 Child, I was more interested in learning about his biological 0:01:33.240 --> 0:01:34.160 family than he was. 0:01:34.760 --> 0:01:37.840 For the last few decades, she's helped adoptees find their 0:01:37.880 --> 0:01:39.160 biological families. 0:01:39.840 --> 0:01:44.080 I work in retail jewelry sales. I make my money 0:01:44.240 --> 0:01:46.840 and then I come home and this is my hobby. 0:01:47.520 --> 0:01:49.520 I asked Carol to help me build out Stay's family 0:01:49.600 --> 0:01:54.240 tree on ancestry dot Com. 0:01:54.520 --> 0:01:57.600 So like the strength of the DNA matches, if you 0:01:57.840 --> 0:02:02.680 have close matches and you're able to identify who these 0:02:02.720 --> 0:02:08.200 people are and to build out their family trees, you 0:02:08.200 --> 0:02:11.239 could solve this pretty quickly. What I mean by the 0:02:11.280 --> 0:02:14.200 strength of the DNA matches, the amount of DNA that 0:02:14.320 --> 0:02:19.160 two people share is measured in a unit called centim organs. 0:02:19.200 --> 0:02:22.320 In general, the higher the cine morgan count, the closer 0:02:22.360 --> 0:02:26.600 the genetic link. This step can get real complicated, but 0:02:26.720 --> 0:02:29.520 basically you want to find where those numbers are The highest. 0:02:30.280 --> 0:02:32.919 So in Stave's case, Carol found a woman who shared 0:02:32.960 --> 0:02:35.520 five hundred fifty six cinem organs of DNA with him. 0:02:36.240 --> 0:02:38.760 So the next thing I do is look at the 0:02:38.800 --> 0:02:42.800 matches and luis color five fifty six. We look at 0:02:42.840 --> 0:02:46.120 the matches that Stephen in five fifty six have in common, 0:02:46.919 --> 0:02:49.200 and I try to look for matches that have good 0:02:49.280 --> 0:02:53.000 sized public family trees that you can look at and analyze, 0:02:53.840 --> 0:02:57.200 and I try to see how people are interconnected. And 0:02:57.680 --> 0:02:59.760 what you want to do is find their most recent 0:03:00.160 --> 0:03:03.480 common ancestor. We want to try to find maybe a 0:03:03.600 --> 0:03:05.280 grandparent or great grandparent. 0:03:06.160 --> 0:03:10.560 Then Carroll built private, unsearchable trees, plotting out DNA matches 0:03:10.600 --> 0:03:14.400 to see how people connect. Basically, that's how she pinpointed 0:03:14.400 --> 0:03:17.200 their most recent common ancestor, and I was. 0:03:17.200 --> 0:03:21.840 Able to determine that five point fifty six is his 0:03:21.880 --> 0:03:28.639 first cousin once removed, so she is Stephen's father's first cousin. 0:03:29.040 --> 0:03:33.359 So she and Stephen's birth father share a set of grandparents. 0:03:34.080 --> 0:03:35.880 Now we need to figure out who the other set 0:03:35.880 --> 0:03:36.760 of grandparents is. 0:03:37.720 --> 0:03:42.960 Based on this meticulous matching process, Carol identified State's paternal grandparents. 0:03:43.800 --> 0:03:46.920 They settle in Nevada, and they had one son. 0:03:49.840 --> 0:03:52.400 In a nutshell, we have the only son of a 0:03:52.520 --> 0:03:57.360 married couple who come from two different areas of the country, 0:03:57.720 --> 0:04:00.720 and we have close and clear DNA connects to both 0:04:00.760 --> 0:04:03.640 sides of this couple's families. So that's what leads me 0:04:03.720 --> 0:04:06.120 to believe that Daniel is his birth father. 0:04:07.040 --> 0:04:11.760 After her exhaustive search, Carol had a name, Daniel Polk. 0:04:12.760 --> 0:04:15.520 It felt like we'd found him, but I wanted to 0:04:15.600 --> 0:04:18.240 run His name passed Sandy, so I called her up 0:04:18.240 --> 0:04:21.839 and asked, did the name Polk sound familiar? And she 0:04:21.960 --> 0:04:25.440 confirmed that yes, she did remember a Dan Polk who 0:04:25.480 --> 0:04:28.240 she knew in Charlotte. She told me Dan was a 0:04:28.240 --> 0:04:32.280 car salesman, a very slick person. Steve would have been 0:04:32.320 --> 0:04:36.000 conceived around the summer of nineteen seventy three. Sandy tell 0:04:36.040 --> 0:04:38.120 me she didn't date him per se, but she did 0:04:38.160 --> 0:04:40.880 remember him. So he did a bit more digging on 0:04:40.960 --> 0:04:44.599 Daniel Polk. He served in the Navy in Vietnam and 0:04:44.640 --> 0:04:47.599 then he drilled water wells. He also volunteered with the 0:04:47.600 --> 0:04:51.000 fire department in Lubock, Texas. I also found out that 0:04:51.040 --> 0:04:54.000 in nineteen seventy nine he married a woman named Ronalda 0:04:54.560 --> 0:04:57.839 about five years after Steve was born, and there was 0:04:57.880 --> 0:04:59.960 something else he died. 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:04.680 I had in nineteen eighty Daniel would have been a 0:05:04.720 --> 0:05:08.760 newly win pretty much bring tumors or what it looks like, Yeah, 0:05:09.000 --> 0:05:09.719 bring tumor. 0:05:09.880 --> 0:05:11.359 Yeah, very sad. 0:05:12.040 --> 0:05:14.320 He was just thirty three and living in Texas when 0:05:14.320 --> 0:05:17.480 he died. He was buried at a cemetery in New Mexico. 0:05:18.440 --> 0:05:20.800 After all this time, I'd be able to tell Stavis 0:05:20.920 --> 0:05:23.520 father's name, but he'd never be able to ask him 0:05:23.520 --> 0:05:26.800 the questions he had, or to visit with him or 0:05:26.800 --> 0:05:28.839 see if they both sit in the same way or 0:05:28.920 --> 0:05:32.440 talk similarly. This isn't the first time Carol's digging help 0:05:32.520 --> 0:05:35.159 someone find the parent they were looking for, only to 0:05:35.160 --> 0:05:37.840 find that they were gone. It was too late. 0:05:41.040 --> 0:05:44.160 I know firsthand what it's like to live without answers 0:05:44.200 --> 0:05:47.640 for many, many years, And you know, it's just important 0:05:47.640 --> 0:05:50.799 for people to know their origins. 0:05:51.360 --> 0:05:52.080 You know, it just. 0:05:52.040 --> 0:05:55.800 Gives people peace of mind, regardless of what the answers are. 0:05:56.000 --> 0:05:57.960 Just to have the answers and to know the truth 0:05:58.040 --> 0:05:59.880 is what gives people peace of mind. 0:06:00.400 --> 0:06:03.400 After Carol filled me in, I needed to tell Steve. 0:06:04.360 --> 0:06:07.280 I called Stephen Janette in June of twenty twenty three, 0:06:08.200 --> 0:06:10.520 we have been into ancestry and we have you know, 0:06:10.560 --> 0:06:12.560 I did find Polk. Polk was a name. 0:06:12.640 --> 0:06:15.040 The closest relative to you that I found in ancerstory 0:06:15.120 --> 0:06:17.560 was a Polk. Got a hold of Handy and I said, 0:06:17.560 --> 0:06:18.799 do you remember any Pokes? 0:06:19.240 --> 0:06:23.479 And she did. I do believe it. Daniel James Polk. 0:06:24.160 --> 0:06:25.039 Where is he from? 0:06:25.240 --> 0:06:26.440 Was he from North Carolina? 0:06:26.839 --> 0:06:31.000 Yes, in the same area. She said that pretty Charlotte 0:06:31.200 --> 0:06:33.040 is in Charlotte and he. 0:06:33.000 --> 0:06:36.880 Has passed away. He passed away in nineteen eighty. Oh wow. 0:06:37.600 --> 0:06:40.239 Now, as of right now, unless something changes my mind, 0:06:40.279 --> 0:06:44.479 I believe that your last name would be Polk. And 0:06:44.520 --> 0:06:47.440 you have family there that we were stolen from too. 0:06:48.080 --> 0:06:49.760 They probably don't even know you exist. 0:06:50.800 --> 0:06:53.240 Steve didn't say much on the phone that day. I 0:06:53.240 --> 0:06:56.520 can see why I told him his father was Daniel 0:06:56.600 --> 0:07:00.160 Polk at the end of a long phone call. The 0:07:00.200 --> 0:07:03.159 name of his father could only do so much in 0:07:03.200 --> 0:07:06.040 that moment. It didn't make him feel any more wanting. 0:07:11.960 --> 0:07:15.520 I've thought about this interactional lot. Like I said before, 0:07:16.040 --> 0:07:18.600 I'd been running ahead of Steve opening doors for him 0:07:18.640 --> 0:07:21.760 that he wasn't ready for. I wanted so desperately to 0:07:21.760 --> 0:07:26.080 help him move forward. I'd been pushing and maybe I'd 0:07:26.080 --> 0:07:30.120 gone too far this time. My name is Todd Matthews, 0:07:30.160 --> 0:07:33.000 and this is hello John Doe, A sleuth, a family, 0:07:33.040 --> 0:07:35.640 and a serial killer. The story of a family torn 0:07:35.680 --> 0:07:38.600 apart by tragedy and my quest to bring them back together. 0:07:41.840 --> 0:07:52.160 Chapter ten, The Reunion. Okay, I am recording now. We 0:07:52.200 --> 0:07:56.040 are about how far out, sixty four miles out from 0:07:56.040 --> 0:07:58.880 our hotel, and we won't see Steve until later tonight 0:07:58.880 --> 0:08:03.720 after he gets off work. A few weeks earlier, in 0:08:03.760 --> 0:08:06.840 August of twenty twenty three, the Brandenburg sisters had all 0:08:06.840 --> 0:08:12.000 gotten together for their own reunion at Andrew's place in Tennessee. 0:08:12.320 --> 0:08:15.679 You remember Andrea the Firecracker didn't know her birth family 0:08:15.760 --> 0:08:19.440 till her fifties. She had invited her sister, Michelle, the 0:08:19.480 --> 0:08:22.640 dog killer owner from Michigan, and her other sister, Amy, 0:08:22.960 --> 0:08:26.000 the Virginia school bus driver, and that invited Steve. 0:08:26.680 --> 0:08:29.160 They was supposed to be a mini family reunion, but 0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:30.000 he didn't come. 0:08:31.200 --> 0:08:33.439 Steve was a no show, but all of them were 0:08:33.480 --> 0:08:36.920 so excited to welcome him into their circle, so the 0:08:36.960 --> 0:08:37.360 three of. 0:08:37.320 --> 0:08:41.240 Us decided racing in there at her tables at Andrea's 0:08:41.240 --> 0:08:43.160 house that we were going to go to him. 0:08:43.800 --> 0:08:46.360 It could be a little road trip, and they invited 0:08:46.400 --> 0:08:50.200 me to come along again. This second reunion came together 0:08:50.240 --> 0:08:53.760 real fast, late summer. In a matter of days, Andrew 0:08:53.800 --> 0:08:55.920 and I were talking about driving there in the same 0:08:56.040 --> 0:09:00.960 car from Tennessee to Steve's hometown, Cherville, North Carolina. Amy 0:09:00.960 --> 0:09:02.640 and her husband Mike were going to meet us there. 0:09:03.040 --> 0:09:04.760 They didn't want to give Steve a chance to back 0:09:04.800 --> 0:09:07.080 out or make an excuse, so they forged ahead. 0:09:07.880 --> 0:09:10.880 He didn't know we were coming. We knew if we 0:09:10.960 --> 0:09:13.280 told him, he probably would have said he had to 0:09:13.280 --> 0:09:15.880 work or something. We kind of just sprung in on him. 0:09:17.720 --> 0:09:20.600 I get where Amy's coming from. She and her brother 0:09:20.679 --> 0:09:23.920 had an amazing connection when they first met, but after 0:09:23.960 --> 0:09:27.400 that he seemed distant. Amy wanted to continue spending time 0:09:27.440 --> 0:09:30.120 with her new found family, but it's hard to contain 0:09:30.200 --> 0:09:34.880 surprises at this scale. Mary, Steve's adoptive mom, soon found 0:09:34.920 --> 0:09:37.199 out that the sisters were coming to Cherryville to see Steve, 0:09:37.720 --> 0:09:40.199 and she didn't think he'd appreciate them just dropping in, 0:09:40.880 --> 0:09:44.840 so she told him. That's the first time things got tense. 0:09:45.720 --> 0:09:48.680 She started texting me tell them not to come. He 0:09:48.760 --> 0:09:52.000 is very upset, but when I texted Steve he said 0:09:52.040 --> 0:09:53.959 he was cool with it as long as we met 0:09:53.960 --> 0:09:56.600 at the hotel, not at his place. He would be 0:09:56.640 --> 0:10:01.120 the first of many contradictions that weekend. That summer afternoon, 0:10:01.240 --> 0:10:03.720 Steve met us at the Quality Inn. It was an 0:10:03.840 --> 0:10:07.360 enthusiastic reunion. He seemed genuinely happy to see his sisters 0:10:07.360 --> 0:10:10.640 and vice versa. They couldn't wait to tell him about 0:10:10.640 --> 0:10:15.080 their plan. Here's Andrew the hisstory was adopted to well, 0:10:15.080 --> 0:10:15.679 we're good. 0:10:15.559 --> 0:10:18.120 To Our original plan was Toy was gonna message you 0:10:18.120 --> 0:10:20.720 and say, hey, I just came in to Charlotte. I'm 0:10:20.720 --> 0:10:23.679 gonna be in you know, he's Mountain or Shelby. You know, 0:10:23.720 --> 0:10:25.199 I want to see you. Can you come over to 0:10:25.240 --> 0:10:27.319 the hotel and hang out here? 0:10:27.440 --> 0:10:29.720 And then we were surprised and that was our original plan. 0:10:30.559 --> 0:10:31.920 It's just been over two years. 0:10:32.840 --> 0:10:35.959 Yeah, that's one thing my mong little teaching secret for me. 0:10:36.040 --> 0:10:40.680 I promise you that I can't. 0:10:40.679 --> 0:10:41.439 There were nothing. 0:10:42.040 --> 0:10:44.440 She asked me if I was working sad and I 0:10:44.480 --> 0:10:44.840 said no. 0:10:44.880 --> 0:10:45.600 I said what you need? 0:10:45.640 --> 0:10:47.280 She said, I mean stuff done around the house? 0:10:48.600 --> 0:10:49.320 What you done? 0:10:50.360 --> 0:10:50.520 Right? 0:10:50.800 --> 0:10:51.520 She said, I can't. 0:10:55.000 --> 0:10:55.200 Down. 0:10:55.800 --> 0:10:57.960 The next text said was five minutes later. She said, 0:10:58.000 --> 0:10:59.040 you know I keep everybody. 0:10:59.640 --> 0:11:01.400 I'm kind and glad. She told us it wouldn't be 0:11:01.440 --> 0:11:03.560 too much of the shop. We wanted to surprise you, 0:11:03.600 --> 0:11:09.559 but we didn't want it to blindside you, but it 0:11:09.600 --> 0:11:12.320 would be another surprise that we'd end up unrappling some 0:11:12.360 --> 0:11:15.040 of the goodwill between Steve's new sisters and his mom 0:11:15.080 --> 0:11:19.320 and girlfriend. Steve, his sisters, and I gathered at the 0:11:19.320 --> 0:11:23.520 hotel not too far from his house. The hotel wasn't fancy. 0:11:23.800 --> 0:11:25.800 It was the kind where each room opens up into 0:11:25.800 --> 0:11:29.080 the parking lot. We all got separate rooms, but we 0:11:29.120 --> 0:11:33.400 treated andreas like homebase. So that's where we were catching 0:11:33.480 --> 0:11:37.559 up and getting settled. Everyone seemed to ease. It felt 0:11:37.559 --> 0:11:40.640 like whatever tension had happened before we got there was resolved. 0:11:44.960 --> 0:11:47.800 About an hour after we all gathered, his sisters told 0:11:47.840 --> 0:11:51.080 Steve there was more. It's a little hard to hear, 0:11:51.880 --> 0:11:52.720 but here's Andrea. 0:11:53.880 --> 0:11:55.400 Okay, you have another surprise. 0:11:55.760 --> 0:11:57.640 It's your choice. 0:11:58.520 --> 0:11:59.679 Sanity came with you. 0:12:00.920 --> 0:12:01.600 She's in the race. 0:12:02.240 --> 0:12:04.000 If you don't want to see her, that's fine with 0:12:04.120 --> 0:12:04.800 all of us. 0:12:06.320 --> 0:12:09.880 Steve's mother, who gave him up for adoption fifty years ago, 0:12:10.200 --> 0:12:13.520 who had only messaged on Facebook, was suddenly a room away. 0:12:14.640 --> 0:12:18.080 Sandy had tagged along an Amy in MIT's car. Now 0:12:18.120 --> 0:12:20.080 she was sitting in her own hotel room at the 0:12:20.080 --> 0:12:25.080 same quality inn. I couldn't believe we had arrived at 0:12:25.080 --> 0:12:28.720 this point. A mother and son torn apart by Floyd 0:12:29.320 --> 0:12:33.679 might be reunited today if Steve would agree to see her. 0:12:34.360 --> 0:12:35.520 We're here with you, Stephen. 0:12:36.000 --> 0:12:39.320 I think you will open your cart. Both of you need. 0:12:39.960 --> 0:12:42.960 We didn't want Jerry Springery, but both of you need 0:12:44.120 --> 0:12:45.080 because you weren't going to. 0:12:45.120 --> 0:12:48.720 Go and there's no hold of faults. If you want 0:12:48.760 --> 0:12:49.960 to yell out of yell, yell. 0:12:49.840 --> 0:12:53.680 At her, he said, I ain't gonna yell at her. 0:12:54.160 --> 0:12:56.520 We're just saying, you do what you want. 0:12:57.400 --> 0:12:59.760 If this last three years been through fucking rough on it, 0:13:00.320 --> 0:13:03.079 so don't feel like you're strained. You can't ask or anything, 0:13:03.160 --> 0:13:06.280 because everything is open right now for all of us, 0:13:06.280 --> 0:13:08.840 and you don't have to worry about it. 0:13:09.040 --> 0:13:09.640 We got you. 0:13:12.240 --> 0:13:13.000 Are you okay with that? 0:13:13.800 --> 0:13:15.080 If you're not, tell us. 0:13:15.040 --> 0:13:20.360 Be honest with us, he said, it's fine. Steve seemed 0:13:20.360 --> 0:13:23.559 really laid back in this moment. He was sitting having 0:13:23.559 --> 0:13:25.760 a drink, seemingly going along with the flow. 0:13:26.559 --> 0:13:29.640 I'm not serious. I want to help you so you 0:13:29.640 --> 0:13:31.439 could process this whole thing. 0:13:35.520 --> 0:13:38.280 She understood before we went that if he didn't want 0:13:38.280 --> 0:13:40.199 to see her, we weren't going to force her on him, 0:13:40.720 --> 0:13:44.120 you know, So she came prepared to stay in the 0:13:44.200 --> 0:13:48.680 hotel room by herself, without seeing him. 0:13:48.840 --> 0:13:51.640 Steve got to choose, you can hear us ask him, 0:13:52.080 --> 0:13:53.720 But his choice is made in the matter of a 0:13:53.720 --> 0:13:57.559 few minutes, with Sandy sitting in the other room. If 0:13:57.600 --> 0:13:59.760 he had known this was the weekend he'd meet Sandy, 0:14:00.200 --> 0:14:02.560 his girlfriend or his mom would have been by his sight, 0:14:03.520 --> 0:14:05.559 but that day he didn't have either of them to 0:14:05.640 --> 0:14:09.000 lean up. I'll let Amy tell you what happened next. 0:14:09.480 --> 0:14:11.959 Before we brought her in, we asked Steven if he 0:14:12.040 --> 0:14:15.760 wanted to see her, and he said yes. So we 0:14:15.840 --> 0:14:19.760 took Sandy and she was in the hotel room, and 0:14:19.800 --> 0:14:22.840 then we asked and he said, sure, bring her over. 0:14:23.960 --> 0:14:25.840 I said, just rip the band it. 0:14:25.840 --> 0:14:31.600 Off and brought her in the room. And some people 0:14:31.640 --> 0:14:33.360 were mad at me because I did it that way. 0:14:34.640 --> 0:14:37.480 The thinking was that Sandy wouldn't live forever. She was 0:14:37.520 --> 0:14:41.000 already in her seventies, and that Steve had real questions 0:14:41.000 --> 0:14:43.640 about his background that only she might be able to answer. 0:14:44.440 --> 0:14:46.960 I figured if we all got behind him and supported him, 0:14:47.560 --> 0:14:54.320 maybe this was the right time to meet Sandy. They 0:14:54.360 --> 0:14:56.760 willed Sandy into Andrea's room, where we were all gathered. 0:14:57.840 --> 0:15:00.560 She looked a little nervous and a little tired, like 0:15:00.600 --> 0:15:02.240 she had been traveling all day and it had been 0:15:02.240 --> 0:15:04.520 hard on her. There were a lot of us in 0:15:04.560 --> 0:15:07.240 that hotel room and only a few chairs and two 0:15:07.240 --> 0:15:11.320 big beds. I watched the two. I was delighted to 0:15:11.320 --> 0:15:14.600 reunite mother and son. I'd been the go between for 0:15:14.680 --> 0:15:18.560 so long, and here they were finally face to face 0:15:18.640 --> 0:15:21.920 after all this time. They didn't look too much alike, 0:15:22.680 --> 0:15:25.640 but they did share the same temperament, A little reserved, 0:15:25.800 --> 0:15:27.080 but polite. 0:15:27.360 --> 0:15:32.360 They just said hello. There wasn't no big, happy like 0:15:32.880 --> 0:15:34.600 happy reunion hung each other. 0:15:36.040 --> 0:15:38.120 Based on all the time that I'd spent with both 0:15:38.120 --> 0:15:41.720 Steve and Sandy separately, I knew Steve had hesitations about 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:44.200 meeting her, and I knew Sandy was reluctant to push 0:15:44.200 --> 0:15:49.160 too much. For the rest of the afternoon, we all 0:15:49.160 --> 0:15:52.400 sat in the hotel room together. Steve said, with Sandy 0:15:52.560 --> 0:15:55.320 knee to knee, him in a hotel chair, and her 0:15:55.360 --> 0:15:58.120 and her wheelchair. The rest of us hung around the room. 0:15:58.840 --> 0:16:01.720 Some went in and out to smoke cigarettes, some poor drinks. 0:16:02.120 --> 0:16:05.160 Everyone cracked jokes and exchanged stories about the car ride there. 0:16:06.120 --> 0:16:08.080 I don't know all of what Sandy and Steve talked 0:16:08.080 --> 0:16:10.960 about in that corner. We tried to give him some space, 0:16:11.760 --> 0:16:14.680 to be fair, though there wasn't much space in that room, 0:16:15.040 --> 0:16:18.760 no real quiet for a private conversation. But every time 0:16:18.760 --> 0:16:21.000 I glanced over, it felt like they were getting along. 0:16:22.040 --> 0:16:24.360 I saw Steve show Sandy photos of his kids, and 0:16:24.400 --> 0:16:28.480 she reciprocated. At first, they didn't talk about anything too deep, 0:16:29.360 --> 0:16:32.040 but as the afternoon went on, Steve dug a bit deeper. 0:16:35.400 --> 0:16:37.760 You can hear Steve here. He's pretty faint. 0:16:39.000 --> 0:16:41.160 Were you scared of him? 0:16:41.320 --> 0:16:43.840 Steve asked if she was scared of Floyd, the man 0:16:43.880 --> 0:16:45.680 who tore them apart. 0:16:45.800 --> 0:16:49.440 Terrafied, who had a knife with him all the time, 0:16:50.720 --> 0:16:54.680 a knife under the pillow, knife and guns. One time, 0:16:57.000 --> 0:16:59.000 the girls a lot in the thing and he was 0:16:59.000 --> 0:17:01.320 in the kitchen. He caught us for us somewhere When 0:17:01.360 --> 0:17:02.880 you said, if any of you ever tried to believe 0:17:02.880 --> 0:17:05.040 I'm gonna skin you just like this squirrel. 0:17:05.359 --> 0:17:08.440 We've heard this story before, how Floyd threatened to skin 0:17:08.560 --> 0:17:12.040 Sandy and her girls like squirrels. But this was the 0:17:12.080 --> 0:17:14.960 first time that Steve had hurt. It was he starting 0:17:15.000 --> 0:17:16.800 to say that Sandy was a victim too. 0:17:17.640 --> 0:17:20.360 I was arrested for raining at dollars seventy eight check 0:17:20.359 --> 0:17:23.720 at seven eleven for diapers for eighty. I mean, the 0:17:23.760 --> 0:17:27.359 biggest part of it was after the tornado and after 0:17:27.440 --> 0:17:30.720 you were born. Fema put us back in a trailer 0:17:30.760 --> 0:17:36.359 in church and I had no car, no way to 0:17:36.440 --> 0:17:39.840 get out, and every time the storm came. Annie was two, 0:17:39.920 --> 0:17:45.639 she would freak out. I would freak out, and I 0:17:45.640 --> 0:17:48.760 guess and now they call it chu ksd And there 0:17:48.840 --> 0:17:51.400 was no help. I asked the mask and asked for help, 0:17:51.440 --> 0:17:51.800 and ever. 0:17:51.720 --> 0:17:56.639 Because you'd say the system failed her, yes, one. 0:17:56.640 --> 0:17:58.120 Yes, How does that make you feel? 0:18:00.320 --> 0:18:05.040 Don't I would be happy. 0:18:06.119 --> 0:18:09.080 I think everyone wanted to make him feel validated, But 0:18:09.160 --> 0:18:11.359 in hindsight, we didn't give him a whole lot of 0:18:11.359 --> 0:18:12.800 space to just sit with this. 0:18:13.760 --> 0:18:16.360 It's a lot to process. I'm not gonna lie when 0:18:16.400 --> 0:18:20.119 I found out about it, you know, I still have 0:18:20.320 --> 0:18:27.119 the messages. I said, they tell me your up. I 0:18:27.240 --> 0:18:31.280 was like, is that true? And he was like, yeah, 0:18:31.320 --> 0:18:36.160 I think I am sobby. It's a lot to process, 0:18:36.520 --> 0:18:37.720 a lot, it is. 0:18:41.119 --> 0:18:44.479 Throughout the story, I'd learned something from say Sandy, and 0:18:44.480 --> 0:18:47.360 then relay it back to Steve, and Steve would say 0:18:47.359 --> 0:18:50.840 something and I'd tell Sandy I was the carrier pigeon. 0:18:51.400 --> 0:18:54.160 I'd been a buffer for both of them, but now 0:18:54.160 --> 0:18:56.920 I needed to step away and give them a chance 0:18:56.920 --> 0:19:00.440 to talk to each other. If Steve had questions, this 0:19:00.520 --> 0:19:04.040 was his chance to ask Sandy directly. Every time I 0:19:04.080 --> 0:19:06.600 looked over to see Sandy talking to Steve, I thought 0:19:06.600 --> 0:19:10.879 to myself. Fifty years ago, Franklin Floyd told Sandy should 0:19:10.960 --> 0:19:15.400 never see her son again. Today we were undoing that promise. 0:19:22.240 --> 0:19:24.560 While all of this was going down in the hotel room, 0:19:24.600 --> 0:19:28.360 Mary who lives pretty close to Steve, checked in on him. 0:19:28.920 --> 0:19:32.040 I take to Steve, I said you okay, He said, Mama, 0:19:32.119 --> 0:19:32.720 get down here. 0:19:33.359 --> 0:19:35.760 Mary had no idea that Sandy was at the hotel. 0:19:36.400 --> 0:19:39.080 She thought, just as sisters had come. She was already 0:19:39.119 --> 0:19:42.160 on the fence about that. So when she realized Sandy 0:19:42.200 --> 0:19:46.120 herself was face to face with Steve. Well, Mary was angry. 0:19:46.280 --> 0:19:49.920 Steve was ambushed with this, and it's not very nice 0:19:49.920 --> 0:19:52.800 for them to do that. Why I went down there, 0:19:53.320 --> 0:19:55.440 and the first thing he said when I went into 0:19:55.480 --> 0:19:59.160 the room was this is my mama, and I love her. 0:20:00.119 --> 0:20:03.400 Steve was proudly introducing her, but I think something else 0:20:03.480 --> 0:20:05.879 was going on. He wanted the whole room to know 0:20:05.960 --> 0:20:07.560 that Mary was the one who had been there for 0:20:07.640 --> 0:20:11.639 him his whole life. Or maybe after Mary arrived he 0:20:11.760 --> 0:20:15.120 felt guilty after unexpectedly spending the whole day with Sandy. 0:20:15.560 --> 0:20:18.560 I wasn't sure Amy noticed a ship too. 0:20:19.200 --> 0:20:23.080 His whole attitude changed because before Mary got there, he 0:20:23.160 --> 0:20:26.199 was talking to Sandy and asking her questions and she 0:20:26.320 --> 0:20:30.159 was answering for him, and he seemed to be a 0:20:30.200 --> 0:20:33.280 little more relaxed. But then when Mary got there, they 0:20:33.320 --> 0:20:34.320 say he just Withdrew. 0:20:36.440 --> 0:20:39.240 Jeanette came to the hotel after work too. She seemed 0:20:39.280 --> 0:20:42.399 a little quiet, but I figured she was just in shock. 0:20:43.720 --> 0:20:45.320 We tried to light in the move by going out 0:20:45.320 --> 0:20:49.360 to eat together. We all went, the sisters plus Sandy, 0:20:49.760 --> 0:20:52.320 Jeanette and Steve. We all sat at a big long 0:20:52.359 --> 0:20:54.040 table at a Mexican joint in town. 0:20:54.640 --> 0:20:56.560 When we went to dinner, it was comical as hell. 0:20:56.920 --> 0:21:01.400 We all would just laughed so much, all being silly. 0:21:02.240 --> 0:21:04.400 Oh we had a blah. 0:21:04.440 --> 0:21:08.000 But by this point something was a miss. Mary would 0:21:08.080 --> 0:21:10.240 later say that she was upset Sandy had come without 0:21:10.320 --> 0:21:14.080 telling Steve first. I had a hard time seeing it clearly. 0:21:14.160 --> 0:21:17.439 Just then that day, I was only thinking about the 0:21:17.440 --> 0:21:20.080 potential positives of having Steve been able to sit down 0:21:20.080 --> 0:21:23.920 with Sandy, not the blowback it might have. I'd grown 0:21:24.040 --> 0:21:27.000 tired of Steve not wanting to move forward on his journey, 0:21:27.040 --> 0:21:29.440 not walking through the doors I'd helped open for him. 0:21:30.200 --> 0:21:32.520 Mary and Jeanette aren't exactly the kind of people to 0:21:32.560 --> 0:21:35.679 scream or get visibly angry, but it was clear they 0:21:35.680 --> 0:21:39.000 weren't happy with this situation. Jeanette said as much to me, 0:21:39.720 --> 0:21:46.199 I wish this hadn't have happened. By Saturday morning, the 0:21:46.320 --> 0:21:49.280 tension began to come into focus for the sisters. At 0:21:49.280 --> 0:21:52.880 the Mexican restaurant the night before, Jeanette apparently told Andrew 0:21:52.880 --> 0:21:55.240 she felt this had been sprung on Steve without his consent. 0:21:56.119 --> 0:21:58.080 Here's Andrea, and you know. 0:21:58.080 --> 0:21:59.320 She's like, you know, I'll have to pick up the 0:21:59.320 --> 0:22:02.119 pieces stand that, but we're your tea, you know. We 0:22:02.119 --> 0:22:04.760 We've got his bag, we'll help. We're a phone call away, 0:22:04.880 --> 0:22:06.080 we're a text message away. 0:22:06.440 --> 0:22:07.080 We'll talk to you. 0:22:07.160 --> 0:22:09.840