R-3 teacher gets to
meet brother she never knew
She starts her story with, "Wow! Where do I begin?"
For some telling a story is easy, you start at the beginning.
But for Rebecca Stallard, the road to being able to tell
her story is told more like putting together a puzzle—it's
done one piece at a time and requires patience.
When Stallard was 15-years-old she learned her father,
Ron Stallard, now a Pleasanton, Kan., resident, had given
a baby boy up for adoption when he was a teenager.
Immediately, Rebecca became excited and told her father
they had to find her brother. Her father responded with
a "leave the past in the past" response.
Fortunately for Rebecca—who is a full time substitute
teacher at Platte County R-3—she didn't give up the
dream of finding her brother.
When she was 20-years-old she began her search again.
This time Rebecca was told since she was a half-sibling
she couldn't access records of adoptions. Adoption information,
she was told, is only given to the birth parents.
The brick wall stayed up in the search for her sibling.
. . that is until a year ago.
It was then the birth mother, Nellie Anderson, Oregon,
had contacted Ron Stallard wishing to begin searching
for their son.
"The state located him (her brother) and gave him
the information. It was his decision if he wanted to contact
us," Rebecca said.
In January, Charles Daily began a relationship with family
he had never known.
It started with phone conversations. Then on April 9,
Daily, an engineer of shield technology development for
Knolls Atomic Power Lab, visited from Albany, N.Y. for
three days.
"We had a fabulous time getting to know one another,"
Rebecca said. "One day we spent the day on our dad's
farm. We shot tin cans with rifles, went 4-wheeling in
our dad's truck, snuck out for ice cream and tried to
catch up on a lifetime worth of memories, all in one day."
Most stories would end here, but there is an interesting
twist to this one.
Rebecca grew up in Kansas City. Daily is a 1979 graduate
of Park Hill High School. She estimates she moved to Parkville
about the time Daily left.
"When he was here we drove by his old house in Parkville.
I had been by it 100 times before, and didn't know it
was his," Rebecca said.
Rebecca said even a coworker of hers remembers Daily
from their school days in Parkville.
"I have relatives in Parkville. And we both have
a mutual interest in Ireland. We even have some of the
same pictures," She said.
Daily was an only child, so meeting an entire family
was a joyous occasion, Rebecca said.
"He was very excited to meet his family and his
cousins. He had a wonderful upbringing, but he was happy
he finally got to know us," Rebecca said. "He
had always wondered if he had a brother or a sister out
there."
Ron Stallard, who was against the idea of locating Daily
in the beginning, was very pleased about the reunion of
his son
.
"When it all come to be, he was so excited he couldn't
stand it. My dad was really touched," Rebecca said.
Daily will turn 42-years-old on Friday, Stallard said.
"I feel so complete. This is something I have been
searching for and wanted my whole life," Rebecca
said.
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