Sister.

So my mom had been previously married when she married my dad. She had 4 kids and while the age difference between them and I has always been an issue, I grew up with them as my sisters. My dad had been married twice before and the first marriage took place shortly after he returned home from WWII. He was happy and so no real signs of marital problems other that the regular. He drank, but from what little I know, it was a pretty normal marriage. And they had a child. Her name was Patricia and was born with Down's Syndrome which I assume was something that was fairly misunderstood back then (1940's). His wife took the baby with her to visit her mother. When she returned, her feelings had abruptly changed. She wanted a divorce. I don't know what they had decided about visitation but according to him she felt threatened by him. I am guessing he threatened to sue for custody. She took out a restraining order keeping him from his daughter's like completely. I have a box of pictures that I inherited because most of them are people I couldn't identify and no one else wanted them. There are a lot of baby pictures of Patricia as a baby. From what I understand the blame was placed on my dad and his mother in law convinced her daughter that if he hadn't drank the baby would have been fine. Since that time we know more about it and it comes from the #21 chromosome. They were also told she wouldn't live long. So I've always known that I have another half sister and my dad, who honored the court order and never saw her again, learn she was placed in a psychiatric ward very early on. His ex-wife didn't raise her. When my dad died I made sure that his ex wives were informed, just out of respect. I thought a lot about Patricia over the years. I didn't want to cause distress or confusion for her. My mother contacted Patricia's mother some time ago and was discouraged from trying to keep in touch. Even though they each had daughter by my father. Yesterday I was curious and did some research and discovered that Patricia passed away 5 years ago. I was sad and distracted and then a bit annoyed that her mother wouldn't have told us. I did more research and discovered that she had died within a year of her daughter. It makes me sad.