Met My Father at Age 46: A Love and Drama Story

By Mehdi Alem M.Sc. Ph.D.

Sue, an American exchange student in England, sexually gets involved with a man. Their relationship is random, and both do not know anything about the other, except their first names. Soon the man disappears with no trace and for no reason. At the same time, Sue realizes that she is pregnant.

Because of her familys pro-life beliefs, she keeps the child (Jasmin) and asks her parents to raise Jasmin until age eighteen. Sue and her daughter, Jasmin, who later becomes a nurse, try to find Jasmins father in a series of events but have no success for many years.

By traveling and being involved in many exciting events, finally, Jasmin finds her father in a third-world country when she is forty-six years old. She also finds out that she has two stepbrothers and that her father is one of the richest men in the whole world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Feb 23, 2017
• ISBN: 9781524586768

Book preview

Copyright © 2017 by Mehdi Alem, M.Sc., Ph.D.

ISBN:      Softcover      978-1-5245-8675-1

                eBook           978-1-5245-8676-8

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 02/23/2017

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Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1 The Story of my grandma, Sue

Chapter 2 The Story of my mother, Jasmin

Log Line

Synapsis

This book is dedicated to:

My Family

Prologue

Good morning Dr. Collins.

Good morning Sue. Nice weather today, isn’t it? Here is the letter that I prepared for you. When you go to British Museum, you should show it to the authorities there before they let you access the original article that you wanted to review.

You know, as I told you before, there is a section in British Museum which public cannot have access to this specific section. In this section only books and articles which belong to several centuries ago are kept. A number of them are so unique that even checking them should be under the supervision of someone in there. The article that I told you belongs to 17th century. You review this article which is related to your work in there and make notes. You do not need much time to spend there. May be two hours will be enough. You may take a bus which stop in the street close to the department and go to London early in the morning. By the time that you get there, the museum will be opened. Go to the main office, show them this letter and tell them that you are a student at University of Reading studying English literature. This letter will be a pass for you to access the restricted parts of the library. You may return back to Reading the same day after you complete you works.

* * * *

I took the letter that Dr. Collins prepared for me and put it in my purse.

Then, I thanked him and left his office.

I decided to go to London on the following Monday early in the morning and after doing my works at the library at the British Museum, spend several hours seeing other sections of the museum and return on the same day in the afternoon.

On Monday morning, after having my breakfast, I went to the bus stop which was very close to my residence and left for London. My ticket was a round trips ticket and at around 5 p.m. I was in the bus stop to return back to Reading.

* * * *

On a cold day in Nov. 2016 I went home to see my mother who unexpectedly had returned to Dallas - our home - from a country in the Middle East. She was sitting in the family room sipping on a glass of red wine in front of the fireplace. I went to her, hugged her and said, Mom, I was not expecting you to return home so soon. You said that you would return in the late summer. I then continued and said, Why did not dad come with you?"

My mother took a sip of wine and put the glass of wine which was in her hand on the table close to where she was sitting and said, The reason is somehow personal, but obviously I can share it with my only daughter.

I knew that my mother was always thinking about something and was not a happy normal person, but this time I could see a full sadness in her eyes. Obviously I also knew about my mother and grandmother’s past histories. I soon realized that something was bothering her so much. I sat on a chair close to her and said, Yes mom, you may tell me whatever you want, I am your daughter.

She looked at the window. It seemed she was looking at the cloud which were covering the sky and was checking something which has happened to her in the past.

She turned her face and looked at me and said, Jean, if you want to know what changed my life and was the reason that I came back home sooner than expected, I will tell you. She then continued and said, Did you have something to eat?

I said, Yes, I had something before I left college and I do not feel hungry now. May be later I will eat something.

After a few minutes general discussion she started talking and what I will start writing in the following pages are the recollection of what my mother told me and what I gathered from my grandma’s notes and journals.

My mother continued and said:

My sweetheart you know that your grandma has never clearly told me who actually my father was and I have never clearly known anything about my biological father. To me, he was someone irresponsible and always a mysterious unknown person. If you want to really know the history of my life, I should first start with the history of your grandma.

My mother, Jasmin, took another sip of wine and continued:

As you know during all my early childhood I thought my own grandpa, you know, my mother’s father (Alan), was my actual father. You also know that during nearly all my childhood and up to when I was 18, I lived with my grandma and grandpa. I remember that during my elementary school years, always my grandma and grandpa were present in my conferences and were looking after my education.

You also know that your grandma, Sue, had a degree in English literature. In 1968, as a part of a program for students’ exchange, she got a 6 - month scholarship and went to University of Reading in England to complete her studies there. To better understand what I am going to tell you, I think I should start with the story of your grandma in more details and what she told me when I was 16 years old.

Chapter 1

The Story of my grandma, Sue

This is the story of my grandma according to what she told my mom and I gathered from her notes:

I was born in 1946 in Houston, Texas in a middle class family that to the best of my understanding were a relatively poor family. My father (Alan) and my mother (Ann), named me Susan (Sue). Both my parents were working in a big super market and they actually first met each other at work in the same super market.

They were both highly religious and I remember that they have never missed a day going to church on Sundays. They used to take me to church with them up to when I was 10-12 years old, but gradually I found out that there was no use going to church with them. Nothing new was presented there and I think going there even for them was some sort of gatherings and being with friends. This means that, although I was born in a family with strong religious background, I really have not believed in what they believed. In school, comparing with my other classmates, I was most of the time lonely and did not have any close friends.

During my elementary school years, both my parents were working and neither one of them was educated enough to help me with my homework. I remember that in many occasions when my mother had to stay at the store for longer hours, after picking me up from school, she was taking me to her work and I was doing my homework in the storage area of the store. I assume that this was one main reason that they did not have any other children and I was the only child in our family.

Sometimes during my elementary school, my mother reduced her working hours and spent more time with