A Sad Message On A Photo

 

 My mother Edna Forgey-Kapple was born in Granada, Nicaragua. Her father Charles Lynn Forgey was a US Marine serving in Nicaragua. He married my grandmother Graciela Del Castillo, a Nicaraguan, in 1919. My mother was born in April 1921. 

My grandfather Charles Lynn Forgey returned to the United States without my mother and grandmother at some point after my mother's birth. I've found him referred to as Dick Forgey in Brownstown Banner newspapers. His hometown newspaper in Jackson County, Indiana. 

Here we see my grandfather mentioned in a visiting newspaper announcement published July 4th 1923. 

In August 1923 Dick Forgey is again mentioned in the Brownstown Banner. 

The fact my grandfather had been in Nicaragua hasn't been mentioned and likely hidden. My mother thought he had no plans to bring her and my grandmother to the United States. He may have wanted to start again and abandon them. 

My grandmother's father had died and he supported the family. My grandmother struggled to feed my mother after her father left. 

My grandmother had no choice but to track down my grandfather by contacting his family in Indiana. She sent the photo with the message below of my mother asking if he remembered her? 

My mother believed his father probably encouraged my grandfather to do the right thing and support his wife and child. 

In 1925 my grandfather finally did the right thing and brought his wife and my mother out to join him in California.

My grandfather did show some pride in my mother when he sent this photo to his family in Indiana. He said my mother could speak both Spanish and English. I am sorry my mother never saw this photo and the writing on the back. I had never seen it until recently. 

Was this a happy ending? It was good for my mother and grandmother to have been rescued from a difficult life in Nicaragua. My mother, however, felt she had been abandoned by her father all of her life, and it really hurt her. It saddened me to see the photo with my grandmother's plea on the back.  

My grandfather Forgey was too young and immature to marry in 1919. He was only 20 years old. I never thought about his age before. I never really did the math. I think I would have talked to my mother about his age if I had known his age at marriage to help her try to overcome sadness and feelings of abandonment. 

I feel fortunate that I always felt loved by my parents and never experienced a sense of abandonment. I'm sorry about what happened to my mother.