Kendall’s long lost family begins to emerge in Episode 2. For decades, Kendall’s brother, Chris searched for him, asking, how to find my long lost brother. But with few leads as Kendall’s was a closed adoption. Ancestry DNA kits brought them together on August 23, 2017. In this episode, Chris and Kendall tearfully recall their first conversation, and the wild decision to up and move from California to New England.
How to find my long lost brother (2:54)
Kendall received an email from Ancestry.com, saying, Congratulations, your results are ready. The results came so quickly, he thought it was marketing. It says, Click here and you can get your results. As much as Kendall struggled throughout his life with passwords for various sites, he must have really wanted to remember this one because he did not struggle with my password.
Family member match (3:23)
The way it was arranged was that your closest relatives were at the top of the page. At the top of the page, it says Christopher Clark. And that’s all it says.
Contact through Ancestry (4:22)
It says, do you want to contact Chris? Kendall wrote, “I literally just got my results back. You show up at the top of my list as my closest DNA match. Here’s what I know about myself: my birth name, my birthday, my birth city. Here’s my phone number. Please call me as soon as you can.”
The first call (5:18)
Five minutes later, Kendall got an email back from Ancestry. It says, “Calling you now.” Kendall’s desk phone rings and he picks it up and it was Chris. And he said, “Kendall, I think I’m your half brother.”
Number one son (6:20)
Chris Clark: On those occasions when he was in drunken anger, he spanked me a little too hard. I was whimpering up in my bedroom, crying. I was trying to get over it. And he’d come up, apologizing and sobering up, and he’d say, ‘Don’t ever forget, you’re my number one son. You’re my number one son.’ And I thought it was such a dumb thing to say. Even when I was a little kid, I was like, why the hell is he saying that? Because I’m his only son.
When I was around 12, I finally said to him, ‘Why do you say like I’m your number one son?’ It was like he was waiting for me to say that. It was his opening. He got really quiet. ‘You actually have a brother.’ I was caught off guard.
After the call (23:42)
Kendall: I remember going downstairs in the office, and people looked at me like I had seen a ghost or something. I looked physically affected. One of my colleagues said, ‘What’s wrong, Kendall?’ Actually, nothing’s wrong. This is the most wonderful moment. I just started spewing verbally, telling everybody who was there in disbelief, and they all start crying.
Presented by:
Savoir Faire Marketing Communications is a full-service marketing agency that brings you the “know how” for your “to do” list.