Last night I watched the fascinating BBC / Ruth Wilson drama about her grandmother and the mysterious multi-parallel love lives of Alexander Wilson. So many people who know my strange father mystery have told me to watch it.
My father had many wives – I have found 3 of them in the UK, but there were others around the world. [Mr Wilson had wives in parallel, my father seems to have worked in series].
There are many children, and we don’t know each other or know any way to connect. I have so far just met one younger half-brother.
My father was in prison a number of times, but according to the police, exactly as Mr Wilson, he has no criminal record.
My father may, like Mr Wilson, have worked in Intelligence and worked behind enemy lines in 40s and 50s.
Although I knew a little of the story when I was 17 and met my father once, I did not start exploring until my 40s. I was suddenly helped by Genes Re-united. By this time my father, I discovered, had been dead 10+ years and now I am finding that those who may have known him are themselves slipping away from me.
Mrs Wilson wrote a memoire for her children to give them the whole truth, My mother, my father’s second wife, wrote a novel like memoire, as close to the truth as she knew it, of their meeting, their time in prison, and my gestation. It was never published or shared with anyone. I found it in her papers when she died. It was clearly written when she was pregnant. It was unfinished with a hand written note “shall I keep it?”. The it being me. I am glad to say I survived.
Not surprisingly Ruth Wilson (actress and granddaughter of Mrs Wilson) has inspired me to start again with exploring who might still be alive and willing to talk to me about the man I believe was my father, and may be father to many other families around the world.
If you are my brother or sister – do get in touch