Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father Page #6

and there was this

overpowering thing.

We did not do complete

tug-of-war, though.

I just gave him to Kate.

No, no, no.

- We shared.

- We took turns.

The next visit, he was really...

The next time, he was dirty,

so I changed his diaper.

And that's when he opened his

eyes to just kind of look at me,

and that's when I said to David,

"Oh, my God, he's Andrew."

I had seen lots of pictures

of Andrew at this point

and even pictures of him

as a child

and I thought, "Holy crow,"

you know. "There's no doubt."

We wanted more time.

So we went back.

And this time, she accused us

of keeping him beyond the time

so that he was distraught

when he went back to her.

She'd try a lot of manipulations

without thinking them through.

And this one was a no-brainer,

really.

If she accuses us of doing

anything wrong to the baby,

she's indirectly accusing

Maureen of being a slouch.

- The supervisor?

- The supervisor.

You know,

Maureen's not gonna take that.

So she just didn't

think it through.

While your grandparents

and Jackie battled Shirley

for more time with you

in family court,

the law in the extradition

proceedings was still slow.

September 19th.

The extradition hearing

finally began,

and evidence

was finally presented.

But just as everything

was moving along smoothly,

Shirley's lawyer Randy Piercey

threw a wrench into the works.

Because the "authority to

proceed" with these hearings

provided by the minister

of justice early that year

had failed to specify

subsections (i) or (ii)

of Section 229(a)

of the criminal code,

the authority to proceed

was invalid,

the 90-day limit to amend it

was now past,

and therefore all extradition

proceedings against Shirley

should be dropped so she could

get on with her life.

Judge Derek Green now

had to rule on whether or not

to throw out the entire case,

which would take place

on October 18th,

which was delayed four days

until October 22nd,

where Judge Green told Piercey

to forget about it

and said they would continue

with the extradition hearing

on November 14th.

Meanwhile,

I came back to California,

pointed the van east

toward Newfoundland

and set off across the continent

on my way to see you,

stopping all over the map

to collect the memories

of a whole spectrum of people

your dad touched.

But it was when I pulled

into St. Louis

to see your grandpa's family...

- Are you the oldest?

- Yeah, I'm the oldest.

Bob was the middle one.

He's one year younger than me.

...that I discovered

a very special place

where your dad

had left his heart.

Andrew and Bob

were very, very close.

To see them around each other,

you'd think that Andrew

had grown up his entire life

around Bob.

You wouldn't know that it was

a once-a-summer relationship.

Bob used to take Andrew out

and let him drive the truck

before he was old enough.

And they'd play pool.

And my dad was very good

at pool,

but then Mack came along who was

even probably better at pool.

I would say he was excellent,

but he wasn't as good as me.

He probably still owes me

around $30,000.

Okay, Mack is my daughter

Rhonda's first husband.

I don't know.

They just clicked.

I mean, they just clicked.

I can't explain why or anything.

Automatically my little brother.

That's the way I looked at it,

you know.

We just become friends.

This is our clubhouse

that me and Bob had.

And he used to love

to come down here.

As soon as he'd hit town,

we'd come down here

and just stay for days.

Dave and Katie and them

would come out.

Always have a big barbecue

or fish fry.

Get the johnboat

and head up the river.

He was the captain.

Me and Bob got to the point

where we didn't even think about

who was gonna drive the boat

if Andrew was here.

At nighttime, they'd stack up

logs and build a bonfire.

And we'd buy fireworks,

you know.

It'd be beautiful 'cause

it was real dark out there.

"That's really stupid, me

checking to see if you're hurt

when you're gonna be

a damn doctor.

You ought to know yourself."

I said, "If you're smart,

you'll be a gynecologist."

Doctor came into the room

and said he had bad news.

He said that the cancer

had spread

to his bones and to his liver.

Bob looked at him and said,

"I want the truth."

He said, "3 to 6 months."

I mean, I can come down here

anytime I want.

I just don't have time anymore,

really.

I lost...

I lost total interest

in a lot of things

when Bob died, for some reason.

I know it was hard on Andrew,

too.

'Cause he wrote me

a little note, a letter.

Bob was very proud of him.

Imagine him and Andrew

are laughing at me right now.

Both a**holes.

Are you sad now?

Yeah, I'm still sad.

I'll be okay.

Come here.

Come give me a hug.

That'd make me feel better.

He was great.

If there's anything I can do,

I'll be there.

Well, we hope to see him.

And we can show him pictures

and everything.

We'd love to be a part of that

as well.

To share our lives with him.

Oh, how I wish I could be there

and pinch those little cheeks.

Zachary, you'll never know

what you missed.

On November 14, 2002,

Judge Derek Green declared

that a properly instructed jury

could likely find Shirley guilty

and ordered her incarcerated

in the Clarenville

Correctional Centre for Women,

awaiting a decision

from the minister of justice

to surrender her

to the United States.

She always seemed to know

exactly when to turn nice.

And it was a pretty obvious time

to turn nice.

Suddenly, Shirley turned around

and gave your grandma

and grandpa custody of you

for as long

as she was in prison.

We could stop in and see him

whenever we liked.

And we did.

They were so excited,

it was Christmas Eve,

and, you know, it had started

to snow a little bit.

The doorbell was ringing,

and someone showed up

with a present.

And then Alan Goodridge,

he was a professor,

one of Andrew's professors,

he showed up with something.

I don't know what.

And then, you know,

finally, I said, "What?

Have you got the Magi

showing up at your house?"

We went to church with them

on Christmas Eve.

If Zachary got fussy, you know,

they would pick him up

and they would feed him

and they'd walk

to the back of the church.

If there's people in this church

that don't know the five of us,

it looks like these are

the grandparents,

we're the parents,

and Zachary is our child.

I said,

"We look like terrible parents!"

He was besotted with them,

the child was.

You know,

no one could comfort him.

Only Kate.

They were so happy.

But it wasn't all sweetness

and light.

You came with strings attached.

The reason we reached consent

and the reason

she reached consent

is if you reach consent,

you have some control.

We'd accept a phone call a day

from jail to talk about Zachary.

Which the foster home

would have done anyway, see?

This is Aliant Telecom.

- You have a collect call from...

- Shirley.

You may press 1 now

to accept the charges.

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