Joey with what i assume are his horses, Clarkston.
In stark contrast to my last entry, i now have an incredible amount of focus and information to go on. On wednesday, i made my way back up north to meet my Mum and Gran again. With my new microphone with me, i was ready to interview them again.
Over the period of the two days, i filmed them whilst we spoke of Joey & America. I asked my Gran about her first impressions as she stepped off the plane in Boston - 'everything was so brown' and my Mum's first childhood memories. We talked about the music that had been important to them both during their time in the states and also whether they believed in The American Dream. We spoke of Joey - his love of guns, his childhood his personality (both the good and the bad), his life after my Gran and his capability as a Father. It was pretty emotional and touchy at times - i felt pretty bad about pushing too hard. I think there's still a lot to be learned from them both, so i reckon i'll perform a few more interviews when i return.
However, it wasn't the interviews that gave me the focus i needed, but rather it was going through my Mum's old keepsakes box; in it were postcards, letters, photographs and other sentimental belongings. She read through some of the letters for me. One in particular stung pretty hard. The bulk of the letter spoke of how lonely Joey had been, describing how losing Grace was the biggest mistake of his life - she was the only woman he had ever loved. My Mum then came to a document that she didn't recognise. It stated the location of my Grandfather's burial - in Clarkston, WA. Now, Clarkston is a five hour drive away from Seattle. This prompted the memory of my Gran, who told me that this was where he had been living last - with a woman many years his senior, Francis Stone. This relationship had apparently been plutonic but we don't really understand at this point why he had been living with her.
In my Mum's interview, she told of how her Father hadn't had many life ambitions, preferring to 'live-in-the-now'; however, he had always dreamed of having his own horses. Moving to Clarkston and in with Francis would have allowed him to realise this, so possibly this was the motive. Or maybe it was to escape a life of partying and excess in Reno. I can't be sure. My Gran still had her address - this meant that my trip now had a logical end, instead of just floating around Seattle. I finally knew his resting place (although still not his cause of death) and where he had been living previously. Clarkston is a pretty small town, so hopefully it will be easy to locate people that knew him.
What happened next was an equally exciting discovery. Attached to the document was a letter from a Mr Stephen Duggan, writing to notify my Gran of Joey's burial. I asked my gran who Stephen was - turns out that he was the brother of Joey's Mother - so his uncle and my great, great uncle. My Gran told me that his son, Jed, had sons and ran a family business called Carlysle Engineering. A quick Google search found out that unfortunately Stephen had passed away in the 90s, but the company was still family ran.
I have family in Boston. I can't believe it. I have family in America.
I really cannot wait to hopefully meet them, to talk about our family's ancient & modern history and to find out what the American experience has meant to them. Hopefully they may have some further information about Joey's life.
As i said previously, Stephen has written to my Gran to notify her of Joey's burial, telling of the exact plot where he was laid to rest. I'm not sure how my Gran must have forgotten about this, but i guess loss can be an incomprehensible thing to deal with. Also in the letter, Stephen sent his best wishes to my Mum (she obviously had not been going through the best time) and invited them to visit. I came across another letter - the reply from my Gran to Stephen. It was dated a few years later. She wrote about me, about how i reminded her of Joey in a way and how she wanted to introduce me to Stephen and everyone in Boston. There was no reply letter to this as unfortunately it was sent just after Stephen's passing. On discovering this i actually began to cry - the first time that i have been emotionally overwhelmed by this story. It is incredibly upsetting how disconnected everyone was within it.
Joey's cause of death is still unknown to us. I have just ordered a copy of the death certificate from Washington State, so hopefully that will arrive before i leave.