Text Version
(Introduction to show begins)
Todd Matthews (Missing Pieces Host): I'm Todd Matthews and this is Missing Pieces. Tonight we have Catherine Martin. Hello, Catherine.
Catherine Martin (Guest): Hello.
Todd: Is it hot enough for you?
Catherine: It is hot enough, a hundred and ten degrees is too much. I'm melting.
Todd: Now, where are you located at, physically, in the country?
Catherine: Uh, we are in the Palm Springs area, it's actually the city, it is called Indio, California, but uh... it's near Palm Springs.
Todd: Uh hmm....
Todd: Oh wow, it's hot then? We are having around a hundred here in Tennessee, as well then. So, uh... so I'll tell you a little bit about what Catherine's father, Lawrence Anthony Martin, was born on December 27th 1939 and grew up in Torrance, California. Ok, now... now so start filling us in a little bit, your life gets a little tricky here uh... he actually has a crazy family tree here now wha... what happened at this point?
Catherine: Well, my father was actually born um... Lawrence Anthony Anderson in Fergas Falls, Minnesota.
Todd: Ok.
Catherine: Uhm... to Florence Anderson, his mother. He was born on December 27th 1939 and I believe he resided in Fergas Falls, Minnesota, only for probably a year before moving to Torrance, California. Um... my father grew up as ah... Lawrence Anthony Anderson for sometime uhm... before my grandmother got married. Uhm... she got married to a name ah... man named Bill Martin, who adopted my father and gave him the last name of Martin. So, uhm... during his teen years and his later life he became Lawrence Anthony Martin and approximately at the age of by 20, I believe, my father started dating a woman by the name of Georgean LaLande. Uhm... I believe she was French, and I know that she worked as a teller for Bank of America. And I believe that was in Gardena which is very near Torrance, California. I think they are neighboring cities. Uhm... my father and Georgean met uhm... they dated briefly when she became pregnant, uhm... and my father and her agreed that she would not be keeping the baby. But, later my father found out that um... she did in fact keep the child, and we believe that the child was named Mark Anthony Martin or Mark Anthony LaLande um... and he would probably be about forty- five years old today is what we were guessing. Ah...uhm... We never knew if she got remarried. We don’t know if she moved out of the area. Um... We are not even sure of the spelling of her name. Ah... The only thing we do know is that she was born and raised, as far as we know, in Gardena, California and went to high school there. Um...her age, she was probably born in 1937 or 1938. She was a year or two older than my father when they were dating, and again like I said, she was a teller at the Bank of America at that time so this child um... would be my half brother and would be my eldest brother. I do have one other brother that is 15 months older than I and it would be wonderful if I would have the opportunity to meet him, um... and meet his family, I think, it would be great, and reunite him possibly with my father, who is still living.
Todd: So your father, he didn't really have a lot of information for you did he?
Catherine: No, he really didn’t because again the agreement was that um... that, you know, that this pregnancy would not go through and it wasn't until I believe 6 months after the baby was born that she stopped by the house in Torrance which we, my actual um..., older brother lives at currently with his family um... then she stopped by there with the child and notified my Grandmother, ah...Florence Martin, and notified my father that um... they did have a child so and that was the only and time that my father ever saw the child, and it was the only time that she ever stopped by and um... that was it there was never any other ah... communication so were not sure where they could be, I mean, they could be in state or they could be out of state it's hard to say.
Todd: So, you really don’t know the point of why she actually came by with the baby then?
Catherine: No, I really don’t. It's just the most peculiar thing. Because, um..., if it was something that was agreed upon and then she decided not to go through with, um..., I'm not sure why she didn’t share that with my father um... at that time and why she never asked for any type of support. I guess is what's interesting um... and maybe she just felt like, you know, um... maybe she just felt that it was to much for a 20 year old man, who knows, I would love to know what was in her head um... why she stopped by and why she never made any further communication
Todd: That’s like bittersweet you'd actually feel the need to go tell somebody, "By the way, I didn’t go through with the abortion", but then at the same time take that person away and no further contact.
Catherine: Yeah, it's just the strangest thing but, you know, and who knows too my grandmother was a kind of a strange bird and um..., you know, who knows what conversation transpired between her and um... Georgean because I believe that my father wasn’t there when she initially came to the door. I don’t think he was home um... and my grandmother had some strange um... behaviors, as well, because she went to her grave not telling us who my father's paternal or who his father was, so my paternal grandfather is unknown to us, as well, ah... and there was always little tidbits that she would give us here and there that would throw us off track. Um... at one point and time she said she couldn’t marry him because he wasn’t of the same religion of her, she couldn’t be with him because he was an older than her or she couldn’t be with him because he was Sicilian. There was all these stories that never really summed up to who this person was um... who my fathers' father was and, ah we just know that he had to of been in Fergas Falls, Minnesota and it would of occurred 9 months prior to the date of birth of my father of 12-27-39 um... so you know, that’s a very small town and we've gone through probably most of her friends that are still living to try and ask if they knew, and none of them know. So with her sister being gone and with a most of her friends that she grew up with not being around and, of course, her parents being gone, then we have no place else to ask, you know, who possibly dated Florence Anderson in 1939. Um... you know, potentially could have gotten her pregnant um... we have no info to go on to find out who my father's father is either so, uh... we've got 2 missing people in the family that we would really like to be able get in contact with.
Todd: Well, including your brother's mother you’ve got 3 branches missing from your family tree and the only person that could have told you anything is past away.
Catherine: Yeah, this is true.
Todd: Wow.
Catherine: She took it to her grave.
Todd: Wow.
Catherine: And why she did that I don’t know, so like I said, her being kind of a strange bird I mean, maybe and maybe, Georgean, felt the same way maybe, she felt like you know um... and maybe, she felt coming by and she was expecting him to respond in a certain way and maybe, he didn’t, you know, didn’t you know respond in the way that she needed him to and maybe, that’s why she decided not to make any further contact.
Todd: You know, and uh... that’s very possible, you know, you don’t know what she came by for, you don’t know the conversation she had with your grandmother. She might of changed her mind, I will tell you I had a similar situation in my family. I did go meet somebody and that conversation I had with that person caused me not to reveal who I was to that person. It's not my father, it's not my father, now I know my mother and my father always said my mother and father but it was a grandparent and that conversation caused me to turn and walk away uh... I didn’t tell him, I didn’t tell him who I was actually came to the uh... telling exactly who I was and possibly bring him to another world and bring him into the family that conversation. When I got more detail he thought I was somebody else and the conversation we had led me to believe that I needed to leave him right where he was, so you never know.
Todd: You know, go ahead.
Catherine: You bring up a really interesting point because, you know, what are you getting yourself into? You know, um... you could have a very um.... dependant um... forty- five year old brother who wants to be in your life to only to suck you dry.
Todd: Yeah.
Catherine: But, you know, I really have really good positive feeling about the potential of meeting this half brother, um... I don’t feel for whatever reasons, I don’t feel in my heart that there would be any, um... I guess, because the way my brother and I turned out, I guess, I don’t feel that he would probably be somebody that I wouldn’t want to be associated with, but you know these are things that um... we get to make decisions about once we meet each other and...
Todd: Yeah.
Catherine: I'm pretty strong about identifying, um... people who like to who like to ah... use other people so I still feel really comfortable about the opportunity of meeting, hopefully, both of them and if we can't meet our grandfather um... because he's passed over um... that’s fine. I'd just like to know who he is, what he looks like.
Todd: Well, everything changes with this because, you know, I've blazed off halfway across the country with one thing in mind, and that was to unify family. I got that it wasn’t really that I didn’t like what I saw, so much as I realized it was too late, it was already too late to change it. It was too late and uh... but I did learn things, you know, not from that person, but once I made that connection I knew who it was. You know, I did go visit the grave so that other family members that had passed away before I was even born so, you know, they had nothing to do with uh... the chain of events that had happened and I did reconnect with my family, although, they were the passed away family, you know, I was able to know ok this is a part of who I am.
Catherine: Did it give you closure? Did you feel that you got some closure out of that?
Todd: Yeah, and I still regret there's things that I thought, you know, I could of tried harder um... maybe it wouldn’t of been that it wasn’t so impossible, but now it is impossible, because he did pass away.
Catherine: Yeah.
Todd: And, uh... now the only other time that I actually visited him was after he passed away and uh... you know, was at the grave and it was at that point is when I used to sit at the grave and I knew all the torment and all the bad blood and everything was over. Only when I sit at his grave I can say (sigh), 'Now it's over', because all the grandparents are gone now. All my grandparents have all passed away now and, you know, they're pretty much all equal except, for the memories you have of the ones that you have life with and, at least, I do have a memory with that one, that particular grandparent, but it was only after there was nothing to argue about, nobody to argue with, everybody is dead that was involved and uh.. Now there's closure it took a great many years to get to that point, where there was closure, took a long time (chuckle) to get to that point.
Catherine: Yeah, I know, yeah.
Todd: But I really understand what you're looking for in this.
Catherine: Well, you know, I guess for me I feel like maybe, I feel a little sad for my father because I just think that with him not, and maybe its not, you know, he's the one that brought it up to me so obviously he felt that it was important in this time in my life, to share this with me, cause he just recently told me. I had no idea.
Todd: Well, you need to know, because you're going by Martin, ok, but you're not a Martin.
Catherine: No, I'm not a Martin.
Todd: Yeah.
Catherine: And I really don’t feel like my father is a Martin.
Todd: I mean no disrespect to your Martin relatives, that actually took care of you, and you know, the people that took care of the childhoods and everything, but you know, still it's not who you are.
Catherine: Yeah.
Todd: You need to know that.
Catherine: And, you know, what I want to know? I want to know if my Dad is full- blooded Swedish. I want to know is he really full- blooded Swedish? Or is he half Swedish? And is he half Sicilian? Is that what his makeup is? You know, and my brother, my half brother, should know what he is, you know, um... I mean, I think it's important, and I think he should know were he got his eye color from, you know, I think he should know where he got his hair color from, and I think that, you know, I should know, you know, what did my father's father do? You know, what was he interested in? Is there any correlation to what he's interested in and what I'm interested in, um... I think it would just be important for all of us. I think it would give us a lot of closure, it would give us definitely some insight into who we are, and why we are the way we are. And I think it would be great to be able to make contact um... either, you know, being an informational purposes or actually in person would be great.
Todd: Do you ever thought about, does he even know if you exist? Your brother?
Catherine: I would think that, and no, I don’t think, and I don’t know. I don’t think that he knows that my brother and I exist, I would think that he is probably of fairly good intelligence, and probably knows that the potential of my father, at the age of 20, giving birth, of having had a child um... that he would of gotten married, at some point in his life and probably produced more offspring. I would think that that would probably occur to him um... I don’t know if he thinks about us, you know, I don’t know if um... he has any clue. Here's the difference, the part that makes it hard for me, is that first of all, I don’t even know he knows, I don’t know if his mother shared the truth with him. She could of potentially gotten married rather quickly um... he could have been adopted by his um... you know, stepfather, who knows, the thing is, is that they she would remember and she potentially may not even be alive, as well, but they would remember where the house was in Torrence, and like I said, my older brother, he's fifteen months older than I, um... still resides at that location since my grandmother passed in 98, so um... if somebody was interested in looking for us, I think, and actively seeking us, it’s a very easy step to go to that location and... And see, you know, were the Martin's live, I guess.
Todd: It would be a lot easier for them to find you, then for you to find them?
Catherine: Yeah, it would be a lot easier for them to find me rather than us trying find them, I mean, I tried to get my father to try and remember her address, even where she lived in Gardena, so that we could potentially go by there and see if there's any um... you know, neighbors that still live there. Anybody that remembers her, anybody she's still is in contact with but, um... we for the life of him, he can't remember the address, um... he just knows that it was in Gardena, he just doesn’t know where.
Todd: What about hypnosis?
Catherine: (Chuckles) My father would never go for that.
Todd: You don’t think he would go for that? I actually know somebody that does that. So uh... it might be something you might want to think about.
Catherine: Really?
Todd: Well, maybe run it by him, and for somebody that I know that does that, and... And that type of situation, you know, professionally that, you know, I can ask them to take a listen to this show and if there is anything he can do, in this case.
Catherine: Well, that’s certainly interesting. I don’t think he would, who knows...who knows, if he would go for it, but you know, what I thought, what might stimulate him is if we got in the car and started riding around Gardena.
Todd: And drove it, well, it's better than trying to beat it out of him. (Chuckles)
Catherine: Yeah, this is true, yeah, absolutely I guess that’s maybe what I need to do, I need to just to put him in the car, and go drive over there and see if we can jug his memory, that way he's just you know, he's older now, and he doesn’t have a great memory um... you know, and trying to get him to go dig in the past, and find things um... is rather difficult. I definitely have considered it.
Todd: Now your mother? Now, what's what?
Catherine: Yeah, my mother um... was born and raised in the San Fernando Valley and um... we know who all her siblings are, and her parents are, so were lucky with that um... there's no mystery there. Which is good.
Todd: But, you did say that she's passed away or she's still living?
Catherine: Oh, no. My mother's still living um... she's still alive but she's probably unaware of the fact that my father fathered a child, as a matter of fact, she told me that he never told her um... so she does not know and they're no longer together and my brother, actually, my older brother doesn’t know either that I have a half- brother. So, the only person my father has shared this with is me.
Todd: And you shared it with the world. (Chuckles)
Catherine: Well, you know, that’s ok.
Todd: Yeah.
Catherine: I mean, um... you know, this is not a secret, that he asked me to keep um... to myself ah... he's actually quite aware that I'm doing the program so um... my mother, like I said, they're no longer together, so he has no contact and... and, so there would be no reason for him to um... call her up and tell her, and as for my brother, um... my brother, just hasn’t made um... the situation where my father can come over and sit down and tell him so.
Todd: But how do you think your mother would feel hearing this, and which I know, she probably won't but if she heard this?
Catherine: You know, you know, I don’t think she would care at this point. They've been divorced for probably 20 years um... actually 21 years, so I don’t think she would... she would care um... you know, I don’t know that she, I think, she would be surprised um... and I think it would be, I think, any time that you were married to somebody, you know, that holds a secret from you, I think they were married for twenty years, um... that’s always a little bit uncomfortable, but I don’t think that it would be a big deal to her really.
Todd: Did you think that maybe she might of suspected? Or maybe, she knows something that you don’t realize that she knows?
Catherine: You know, I don’t think so, because based on the conversation that I had with my father, um... I mean, there was really... there was no contact whatsoever, and he said, he never ever told her about it, so I don’t think, so I would be really surprised if she knew something.
Todd: Did you ask your dad, 'What else have you not told us?'
Catherine: Yeah, really... yeah, no actually, I did and I said, you know, dad, I said um...' If you've got one, how many others do you have?' I was really surprised by my father, because my father is so um... passionate about father's taking care of their children, um... and he's so outspoken and very judgmental of people who don’t take care of their responsibilities, I mean...
Todd: But he wasn’t allowed to do that, though, he wasn’t given the opportunity to be the father so that probably strengthened that feeling.
Catherine: Well, you know, yeah... I guess in my mind, you know, but I'm coming from a different position, you know, I would be coming from being a mother, and being a mother is much different than being a father, but you know, for him I guess I would of thought he would of tried to take a more active role, you know, in the child's life, but maybe, he felt duped, you know. And, you know, and uh... it should have been talked about, or you should have known about it, um... if that was her position that she was going to take that position, that she should of shared that with him. And who knows, you know, maybe for her the avenue that she was going to take um... to relieve herself was not available when she thought it was available, I mean, we really don’t know and maybe she just changed her mind, which is her prerogative, you know.
Todd: Well, there's a lot of people that live out in the world today that know they come from a background that they're adopted, that they might not know exactly where they came from, or they realize the parent might have another child, and that maybe they looked and uh... I think everybody that has a question about their past should probably go to the internet and Google their own name, and people have actually found some very important information just by doing that. Have you ever thought about taking your own name, or your father's name, to see if possibly your brother's looking for him?
Catherine: Yeah. I have, I guess, my biggest problem is, and this is going to sound silly, but, you know, my father has such a common name.
Todd: Uh... hmm...
Catherine: And, um... you know, when you look up Lawrence Martin, for example, on the internet um...
Todd: A lot of them.
Catherine: Like, I've looked up, Catherine Martin, is an author, so my name is commonly shared with this author um... but, yeah, I have looked up Lawrence Martin. I've looked up Mark Anthony Martin, um... Mark Martin, I've looked up Mark LaLande. I've tried to do so many searches on trying to find these people, just Googling, and I'm not, I'm not getting any luck, really, um...
Todd: What about the bank? Where she worked at?
Catherine: You know, I've thought about trying there too, because, maybe she stayed there and she worked and she retired there. It's possible um... it's very possible. What I did do is, I contacted all the local high schools, and based on when my father thought that she graduated, being a year or two older than him, I had them look up her name in the um... in the ah... year book and I called um... I think I called um... Gardena High and I called Mondale, which are in the area and Torrance. She definitely didn't go to Torrance High, where my dad went, I don't think um... and neither one had her listed, so I kind of hit a brick wall with that. Um... and yeah, I probably should contact the Bank of America and see if a Georgean LaLande ever worked there, but that would be a, you know, that's going to be a hard thing, because typically there's a lot of change over in employees um... and then additionally, she probably could have gotten married and changed her last name. So I'm dealing with that issue, as well.
Todd: Well, and your not in front of the spelling of the name, so that's going to be...
Catherine: Yeah and then how do you spell Georgean LaLande? I would think it would be spelt LaLande but again there are variations to that last name spelling um... and how is Georgean spelled, you know, um... it's just as curious as well...
Todd: Well, I did a little research before we a did this taping, and I did see a lot of variations in names and a lot of Martin's, a lot of Lawrence Martin's, there's just like you said, there's just tons of them out there, uh...
Catherine: Yeah...
Todd: If a... if you could say something to your brother, you know, if...if say, he googled his name, he knows his fathers name, and he googled the name, and he's wondering the same thing: 'Do they want anything to do with me?' and, you know, what you say now will be imbedded in search engines, what would you say to your brother, in reference, to him wondering? Does this family even want to know anything about me? What would you say to your brother?
Catherine: I would say, please contact me as soon as possible. Um... I would love to meet you. I would love to talk with you on the phone. I think that we would have a lot in common, um... I think its important that you meet and know your family um... and that, you know, we could forge, a probably, a really good relationship, um... and it would be interesting to know what his life is all about, and I would love to be able to share that with him.
Todd: And, no strings attached?
Catherine: Nope. If we don't like each other we just go on our separate ways, and... And were good to go, and if, you know, he doesn't feel comfortable meeting my father, or when he does feel comfortable meeting him, um... you know, that's fine, too. This is not a take all, he doesn't have to meet my father with me, um... he can just meet me, and um... you know, it might help him clear up uh... it certainly would help, I think answer a lot of questions about what happened, and I think it would probably help him answer a lot of questions about his life. I'm sure that he has, he probably has some negative feelings as to how things worked out, and I think that we could probably put some answers to those questions, I would think
Todd: And he might feel abandoned...
Catherine: Yeah.
Todd: He really might so... so Mark, if you're listening, or your Googling this, at some point, uh... your sister doesn't want money, and she's not a weirdo, and that's usually the biggest fright, you never know what your going to get, you know?
Catherine: This is true. I am actually a very successful um... business owner. I own my own marketing and advertising consulting firm, um... I own a couple of homes, and um... I do very well for myself and um... I'm unmarried although I do have a live-in boyfriend, and um... I have no children, except a really super fabulous puppy dog, and um... I'm educated, and um... I would assume my brother is probably similar to that.
Todd: Now... now you're other siblings. Do you have any other siblings that are actually related, half, you said you had an older brother?
Catherine: Yeah, I have an older brother, who's my full older brother. He's 15 months older than I, and that brother um... is he's into the air conditioning heating and repair business um... and he has a wife of, and gosh, I would think they would be married close to 15 plus years now, and he has 3 children um... he has two sons and a daughter and they range from 13 to 9 to almost five so, um... he would actually um... be an uncle.
Todd: So, Mark, if your wondering, and your listening, she uh... I think you've got a really nice built- in family waiting for you.
Catherine: Yeah.
Todd: And, you may, have more, you know, uh... you know, not course you wouldn't have any more direct, you know, but he may have some siblings of his own, that would be part of an extended family, you know, that'd be put in this so... Wow.
Catherine: Yeah. Right it would be great if he had some siblings, you know, um... it would be really interesting to meet them, as well, and, you know, I may be an aunt. He may have children too so even though um... I wouldn't make him an uncle but he may be able make to make me an aunt, which would be great. I absolutely adore my brother's children and um... and spoil them rotten so um... it's a lot of fun and it's great to be the aunt, the beloved aunt. I've got to tell ya, you hold a very good position when you're the aunt visiting, so... uh... it could be really...
Todd: Oh, yeah. You can make them rotten, and then go home. That's the good thing...
Catherine: Yeah, exactly... yeah exactly!( chuckling) I'll just ruin everybody's day by spoiling them rotten, but they're all really good kids, and I would assume that if I had another brother he'd probably would have a good family as well, and it would be great, and like I said, and even in relation to my father's father, if somebody could just help me identify who the person may be, um... even if they don't want to be in contact, it would just be wonderful to know who my father's father potentially is, um... jus to see, you know, where did he get his, he doesn't look anything like my grandmother so, um... he's gotta look like his father, I would imagine.
Todd: So this is a good opportunity, on this show, this is a lighter show, you know, I know your looking for a lot of things, but you know, you're looking on your father's side, this is a good opportunity, so I'll tell you exactly what will happen now, at this point and time, you know, you have your permanent archive page and... and you've seen it and that page will remain on Missing Pieces for, until... some tragedy takes it down, but you know, it's... it's intended to be there forever, your audio will be there so, they'll actually hear your voice, whoever's looking...
Catherine: Ok.
Todd: Uh... and it will be transcribed at some point and time, it will be transcribed, and it will be a searchable text, an hour show, and you know, we probably won't go an entire hour with this one but an hour equals about twenty pages of transcribed text so...
Catherine: Oh, ok.
Todd: So, that makes an incredible amount of data that goes into this search engine, so anybody doing anything with the internet, in relation with their own name, will come across this at some point and time. And hopefully, you've said some incredibly positive things, if there's any hesitation there, that they don't know what they're getting into, and like I said, I went into that wild blue yonder myself, not knowing, you know, had I known something ahead of time I might not of went, you know, I don't know... I don't know what I would of done, so hopefully, this will help you.
Catherine: Are you glad that you went?
Todd: Yeah, I did, I am, you know...
Catherine: Well, ok.
Todd: It's still, there's still a little breaking of the heart, though what I got there was more pleasure than pain.
Catherine: Good.
Todd: So, but you know, I was to the point, it was too late. It was too late to fix it, so you're very young, you know, and your brother's very young, so there's plenty of opportunity for you guys to fix it.
Catherine: Well, I hope so, and, you know, if we can, great, if not, you know, like I said we always have a little more closure, and information with each other and we just move on with our life.
Todd: And that's great, because he has no idea, probably, of his background, in relation, to your family, period. Other than what his mother told him, and if her memory is as vague as your Dad's, she doesn't know much of anything.
Catherine: Then we're in trouble.
Todd: Yeah, you're in a lot of trouble.
Catherine: Somehow I have a feeling that her memory is not as poor as my father's.
Todd: I think we're going to have some people that actually will be able, you'll probably get some letters, I'll probably get letters, in regards, to this and I think tips will trickle in uh... that that you can look at, they definitely will be forwarded to you, and hopefully, you'll keep us updated, and we can add to your page, you know.
Catherine: I absolutely will. I will absolutely keep you updated. I'm hoping that um... definitely something comes of this and that I'll be able to um... put some closure to our lives, and ah... I will be able to let you know that um... by you helping us um... that we were able to do something good with our lives, and that would be really, it would be great if I could be able to tell you that this show helped us find our loved ones. That would be fantastic.
Todd: That would that would really be great. Hopefully, somebody else who's in that position will hear you and see what your doing and see all this positive energy around it, and hopefully they'll take a risk because it took me a long time to actually take those first few steps and it sounds like you actually got started practically immediately when your dad told you this. So how'd you feel when he first told you this? I mean, was it unbelievable?
Catherine: I was shocked. I was shocked, and I think I was mostly shocked because, again, you know; my father is just so um... (Pause) uh... I don't know what the word is, I want to say is but, uh... stringent strict about what is the right thing to do, and not the right thing to do, and just... just so particular and I was really shocked that he never told anybody, ever.
Todd: Well, it sounds like at this stage in his life, he's trying to fix it. I think he's doing what he can to fix it, maybe, you know, what does he think about you doing your search?
Catherine: He thinks it's great. I've told him, you know, that I've contacted the schools and he's a little troubled by that. He doesn't understand why she's not showing up at Gardena High School. He's like that's one thing he feels really positive, that she was, you know, probably born in 1937 or 1938, and that she would have graduated from Gardena High, and I said 'Well, do you really know that Dad, because if you were 20 and she was 22, you know, that's 3 or 4 years and you know you didn't date for very long? Maybe you didn't talk about where she went to school, maybe she went to Lawndale, maybe she went, maybe, she did go to Torrance High, maybe she went to, you know, there's a couple of other schools around there.' He said, 'Yeah, you know, your right.' and he said and I said, 'Are you positive that she lived in Gardena?' and he said, 'Yeah, I'm positive about that.' And he's positive that she worked at Bank of America. Um... but he doesn't know the spelling of her name, and I explained to him that I went online, I did a search for Mark Martin, you know, Mark and Marc, um... and that Mark LaLande, and that I went through the white pages dot com and I printed out everyone on there, and I called them you know and I'm just having a really hard time finding, and I've only found 2 Mark Martins on the internet, and one that are 45 roughly, and I think one is a race car driver and the other one is um... gosh, I don't know, what he was but, when I went on their websites, they... there mother's names didn't match Georgean LaLande so...
Todd: Hmm...
Catherine: And maybe these people, maybe she adopted the baby out, I can't imagine after it being 6 months old, her adopting the baby out, but you know, who knows? I mean, anything is possible.
Todd: Well, by doing this show, you've effectively created a website; you'll have that page, that you can create a domain name for, and link it directly to that page, if you'd want to. I'd recommend, maybe, even contacting one of the administrators at the school, and say: 'Ok, here's my story, in a nutshell. I won't try and tell you over the telephone. Here you go uh... give it a read, or a listen, and you know, maybe somebody there uh... you know, I had a lot of luck with that, you know, just a being able to put something in a nutshell and give it to somebody, and then they take the time to look at it in their own time, instead of trying to make that cold phone call, and you know, I've had people that will actually respond back to me, and say: 'You know, I think I can help you.' So...
Catherine: Well, you know, I think you bring up a really good point, and I think what would be an interesting thing is a father/ daughter trip back to um...
Todd: Definitely.
Catherine: Back to the area and kind of hitting all those things, um...
Todd: You've got the checklist; you've got the trip, um... possible connections with the school. You've got the website, in case, you want to go to the um... maybe we can hypnotize him, I don't know, we can try. I definitely... I definitely want to get an opinion from somebody, and ask them is it possible, in this case, to get more information, you know, if both parties are willing, it is a possibility, uh... that we can at least check into it, and uh... make it available if uh... it's something he wants to entertain, at some point and time, so but I think you've made a few positive steps.
Catherine: Well, I hope something works out but we'll keep looking, you know, unfortunately with my business I wish I could spend more time, you know, doing this because I would of already been out to Gardena which I mean, I need to take my father with me because he would really be the only one that would obviously be able to recognize the streets but um... you know, so that we can, to stop by the schools ourselves, and go to the library, and look in the year books ourselves, and do all that good stuff and, you know, I...it's just really hard trying to get my schedule with work, during the week um... and be able to take a day off, and do that drive because by the end of the day, it's going to be a four hour drive, each way, so, you know, it's been a little bit, but I've put it on the schedule, so its going to be something that I'm going to get to and address and um... hopefully, something good will come out of that. If we can't, we'll just keep using all the avenues we need to until um... something works.
Todd: Oh, I think it will, I think eventually you will find something maybe, you can actually uh... print this... print this out and actually give it to the classes uh..., you know, their reunion classes. Somebody is going to remember that person if she went to that school.
Catherine: I agree with you there.
Todd: Certainly, somebody would.
Catherine: Somebody has got to remember her. Absolutely.
Todd: Well, I think, you've got a great start and well, we'll tell the audience good bye at this point, and have a little bit more of a conversation with you, and hopefully, somebody listening, one of our regular listeners, we have some really good detectives out there. Maybe they can uh... give you an e-mail or shout, let me know something, and maybe, we can find something.
Catherine: Yeah, absolutely. I'd be interested in hearing from anybody that may be able to help us...
Todd: Ok, sounds great. Well, good luck on your journey. Hope you find what you're looking for.
Catherine: Thank you.
Todd: Ok, well, say goodbye to the audience.
Catherine: Thanks so much for talking with me.
Todd: Ok, well goodbye everybody!
Catherine: Goodbye!
