A Father Found - Part 1

The year was 1971 and my mother was only 13 years old. The daughter of a Pentecostal preacher, living in Long Beach, Ca., she was very fond and a young boy named Raymond. Raymond was around the same age as my mother. Soon their relationship went beyond friends and my mother became pregnant. Upon hearing that her son got a 13 year old pregnant, Raymond's mother moved him away and forbid him to see my mother or his son. My mother soon moved back to Oklahoma and at the age of 14 married a friend of her's named Billy. My older sister was born shortly after. She was given the named of Billie and her birth certificate listed my mother's husband as the father. The next year, while visiting in California, my grandmother ran into Raymond at the local bus stop. He asked about my mother and his child and upon learning they were in California, he went to visit them. My sister was six months old and that would be the last time she would see her father for 36 years. My sister always knew of her father. She was always told pleasant things about him and made aware of the fact that it was not his choice that he was not in her life. My sister tried to find her father throughout the years, but had little luck. He had a very common name. In 1998, I did a nationwide internet search of his first and last name as well as his middle initial. The search came back with over 500 results. I did not search again until the summer of 2008. I knew that the search would be an uphill battle.