dogimo: A bit of a different direction today - and welcome to another edition of Special Guest Shot, folks! - but today, we have a more touching story, a human interest story, the very moving story of a man trying to reconnect with family. We welcome Mr. Todd Bicklemet to the program. First of all Todd - am I pronouncing that right, "BICKLE-may"?
Todd Bicklemet: Close - it's "Bick-le-MAY."
dogimo: That was close.
Todd Bicklemet: Yes.
dogimo: So. You're trying to find your parents.
Todd Bicklemet: It's a complicated story, and it's been a complicated journey, but I think my story holds a lesson in it for others.
dogimo: Thank you. Thanks for passing it on to us. It can't be easy to share sometimes, something so painful and personal.
Todd Bicklemet: You're welcome! No, it hasn't been easy.
dogimo: I could tell.
Todd Bicklemet: Thanks. I only learned the truth a couple years ago myself. But all my life I somehow knew. There was something there, something missing...a sense that things had gone a different way than they could have.
dogimo: A worse way?
Todd Bicklemet: Well, don't get me wrong! I love my mom and dad - they're the ones who raised me. I consider them to be my parents 100%.
dogimo: But somewhere deep down...
Todd Bicklemet: Right. I knew something was up. I needed to know. When mom and dad first told me...well, it hit me like a thunderbolt. It was like, this explains everything! What I was feeling all those years!
dogimo: Why don't tell us how it all unfolded for you?
Todd Bicklemet: Well one day, I was about 22, a chance remark from my mom to my dad made me start digging around in the attic. And I found some letters. And I found some papers, and I confronted them with it.
dogimo: What did they say?
Todd Bicklemet: They tried to make something up at first, they tried to cover - but then finally, my dad just looked at my mom and he said "Our son needs to know." And my mom just bit her lip and gave a little sob, and my dad started talking and...finally, after all those years, the truth came out! See...my mom and dad were just both so young at the time.
dogimo: Unmarried.
Todd Bicklemet: You betcha. And they were scared, and they didn't have a lot of money. They just weren't sure if they could provide me with the life they wanted for me. So they decided to do the right thing: put me up for adoption. There was even a couple lined up to adopt me, but at the last minute my mom and dad backed out. They just couldn't go through with it! So they took the plunge, got married. They decided that they were going to keep me, come what may.
dogimo: How did you feel, when you first learned about all this?
Todd Bicklemet: Well, I was shocked. I mean, like I said I love my mom and dad. And they did the best they could by me - they love me. They gave me a happy home. They scraped and scrimped to keep clean clothes on my back and food on the table. But it was always a struggle. There was a lot of Mac N' Cheese!
dogimo: M'mmm!
Todd Bicklemet: Yeah, I love Mac N' Cheese! Mom's recipe is the best. But other things too, like, I had to work my own way through community college.
dogimo: Wow.
Todd Bicklemet: Yeah! And from what I could tell from the papers I found, my adoptive parents were really well off.
dogimo: So you decided to track them down. You decided to find your adoptive parents, and reunite with them.
Todd Bicklemet: I had to! Well - we'd never actually met, so "reunite" isn't quite...but basically, yes. I needed to find these two people who, but for a quirk of fate, could have been the two most pivotal, defining figures in my life. All my life I felt this weird void, as if I'd had gone down a different road, as if fate had had something else out there that I might have been meant to experience. And now I knew what it was!
dogimo: You can't ignore that kind of revelation. So how did it work out? Were you able to track them down?
Todd Bicklemet: Yes I was.
dogimo: What were they like?
Todd Bicklemet: They refused to see me.
dogimo: They refused to see you! Or...did they...?
Todd Bicklemet: Yeah. They did.
dogimo: Well.
- END OF PART I -
Todd Bicklemet: Close - it's "Bick-le-MAY."
dogimo: That was close.
Todd Bicklemet: Yes.
dogimo: So. You're trying to find your parents.
Todd Bicklemet: It's a complicated story, and it's been a complicated journey, but I think my story holds a lesson in it for others.
dogimo: Thank you. Thanks for passing it on to us. It can't be easy to share sometimes, something so painful and personal.
Todd Bicklemet: You're welcome! No, it hasn't been easy.
dogimo: I could tell.
Todd Bicklemet: Thanks. I only learned the truth a couple years ago myself. But all my life I somehow knew. There was something there, something missing...a sense that things had gone a different way than they could have.
dogimo: A worse way?
Todd Bicklemet: Well, don't get me wrong! I love my mom and dad - they're the ones who raised me. I consider them to be my parents 100%.
dogimo: But somewhere deep down...
Todd Bicklemet: Right. I knew something was up. I needed to know. When mom and dad first told me...well, it hit me like a thunderbolt. It was like, this explains everything! What I was feeling all those years!
dogimo: Why don't tell us how it all unfolded for you?
Todd Bicklemet: Well one day, I was about 22, a chance remark from my mom to my dad made me start digging around in the attic. And I found some letters. And I found some papers, and I confronted them with it.
dogimo: What did they say?
Todd Bicklemet: They tried to make something up at first, they tried to cover - but then finally, my dad just looked at my mom and he said "Our son needs to know." And my mom just bit her lip and gave a little sob, and my dad started talking and...finally, after all those years, the truth came out! See...my mom and dad were just both so young at the time.
dogimo: Unmarried.
Todd Bicklemet: You betcha. And they were scared, and they didn't have a lot of money. They just weren't sure if they could provide me with the life they wanted for me. So they decided to do the right thing: put me up for adoption. There was even a couple lined up to adopt me, but at the last minute my mom and dad backed out. They just couldn't go through with it! So they took the plunge, got married. They decided that they were going to keep me, come what may.
dogimo: How did you feel, when you first learned about all this?
Todd Bicklemet: Well, I was shocked. I mean, like I said I love my mom and dad. And they did the best they could by me - they love me. They gave me a happy home. They scraped and scrimped to keep clean clothes on my back and food on the table. But it was always a struggle. There was a lot of Mac N' Cheese!
dogimo: M'mmm!
Todd Bicklemet: Yeah, I love Mac N' Cheese! Mom's recipe is the best. But other things too, like, I had to work my own way through community college.
dogimo: Wow.
Todd Bicklemet: Yeah! And from what I could tell from the papers I found, my adoptive parents were really well off.
dogimo: So you decided to track them down. You decided to find your adoptive parents, and reunite with them.
Todd Bicklemet: I had to! Well - we'd never actually met, so "reunite" isn't quite...but basically, yes. I needed to find these two people who, but for a quirk of fate, could have been the two most pivotal, defining figures in my life. All my life I felt this weird void, as if I'd had gone down a different road, as if fate had had something else out there that I might have been meant to experience. And now I knew what it was!
dogimo: You can't ignore that kind of revelation. So how did it work out? Were you able to track them down?
Todd Bicklemet: Yes I was.
dogimo: What were they like?
Todd Bicklemet: They refused to see me.
dogimo: They refused to see you! Or...did they...?
Todd Bicklemet: Yeah. They did.
dogimo: Well.
- END OF PART I -
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