Although this film reaches its conclusion with mom found, after near a quarter of a century missing, and it was an act of bravery on her son's part to be willing to risk such a personal story, sadly I felt like there was a whole lot unsaid and untold. Maybe the real story actually began after filming.
Beginning in 2014, two brothers with different fathers went looking for the mother who abandoned them. They gave it a year max. They didn't use genealogy but they did interview relatives (an important skill for genealogists), network, travel extensively, and mostly depend on social (internet) networking and Canadian police officers willing to give small clues, not much more.
One of the cool things they did was use an app that uses a photo of a person and ages them. You'll have to decide how close the app came.
What's weirder? A woman marries twice and has two sons, one with each husband, but splits? Or that when she split not a single family member kept track of her or filed a missing persons report? Seems to me she was thrown away. And these people didn't say a word about her until the sons started asking. Rob, born in 1960, whose quest it was first, also had a dad that abandoned him so he was raised by his mother's parents.
What could have happened that this family didn't care to find their daughter? Or ex-husbands - the mother of their sons?
Reportedly, mom had a normal childhood in which she exhibited talent as an ice skater and an outgoing personality. She got work in the hospitality industry, restaurants and resorts, which makes sense to me since she was a people person. Implied is that she was partying.
But hey. What do average people do for work or fun in Canada?
What if this were Appalachia?
They didn't want to hire a PI and I don't blame them.
Rob's mom's father doesn't care if he ever sees her again. Why not?
Through posting on the Internet, which they did as well as taking paper flyers around to restaurants, the sons get a phone number for mom, call, she readily agrees she is the mother and she and her son tell each other they love each other.
They do? They don't know each other. But OK, they mean well.
I'm sorry, she might have "disappeared" but she probably knew where they were all along. She had given up. Maybe forced to. What were the terms of the custody agreement?
Something more was going on. Something as simple as poverty. Or as complicated as alcoholism or bad men.
I watched this film hoping to learn some new tricks. I didn't. I saw the value of public postings and photos but winced at the lack of privacy; mom's all over the Internet without her knowledge or permission then gives her side of the story at the end.
Sad.
C 2021
