Chapter 117

“I believe the most common reason is because the birth parent has a new life and a new family, and has failed to tell the new family about his or her earlier family. In one of my sociology courses, we studied a number of such cases.”

“What are you suggesting?”

“That if you wish to make contact with your father,” Father said, “you should proceed very slowly and carefully. I think the best way would be to approach the man through a third party—a lawyer, for example, or perhaps a priest, if he is a religious man.”

“Will you help me arrange that?”

“Of course,” Father said.

“How will we go about looking for my mother’s family? Calabria is a huge region.”

“I’ve been thinking about that,” I said. “Assuming that Dani is unable to pinpoint a more specific locality—”

“I’m working on it,” he said.

“And assuming that the woman’s great-grandmother cannot be located in any records,” I said, “and we can’t pinpoint anything more specific, I’ve had an idea.”