Dean Paxton

As some of you may be aware, for much of my life, I have been trying to locate my mother. Note, that I do not refer to her as a “birth mother” as I was not technically adopted by someone else, though I have had many, many honorary mothers who readily volunteered for the role and continue to manifest

A bit of backstory

My mother left me behind in Flint, MI in late spring of 1973. I lived with my grandmother and great-grandmother (on my father’s side) until I was just past 17 years old. I moved into my own house at that time, in 1984. I had not heard from her, seen her, or heard word of her and her whereabouts since that day.

She was often spoken of by my grandmother and great-grandmother, sometimes disparagingly. Other times sympathetically. They were judgmental people who lived in a very, very small and rarified environment. Their entire world consisted of their own limited experience, the very small group of relatives and friends they had, and little else consisted of their world view. Most importantly, they quite often, as many do, used other people’s perceived characteristics, words, and deeds to invalidate them while validating themselves. Needless to say, neither of my parents, myself, or anyone for that matter, scored well on that set of measurements.

Fast forward a bit

Several times over the years, I made efforts to locate her. In fact, the reason I am so accessible and easily located online largely is due to her. I had always hoped she, or her potential and subsequent relatives would try and locate me. I wanted to be sure I was easy to find. For the best part of 25 years, I have used my real name and made sure that even my name resolved to a domain for ease of access. I will likely revisit that notion going forward. Regardless, despite all efforts she was a virtual ghost in nearly all systems and directories.

Her name yielded no census records, no court records, and no tangible publicly available information. Paid people search services presented only impostors and close matches to her. At one point, a friend who is a bail bondsman and private investigator, tried to locate her and found virtually nothing. He stated that without a social security number, she would likely not be found. Ironically, in all of the documents, forms, licenses, and legal material I have saved, I did have her social security number, but overlooked it many times.

Eureka?

In 2016, I thought that I finally had some luck in finding her. It seemed that her present husband had died. Thus, his death created a record and left a tangible match for her name as “Carol Janice Aird” under her current married name. My father resolved to become involved, mostly at the request of his granddaughter, and wrote to her and her copied his letters to her husband’s named relatives at the address that we were able to determine was her likely residence. But, we received no reply.

By this time, I’d resigned myself to leave her at peace and to stop trying to find her. Even when asked by her grandchildren. My logic was, at that time, whatever her reasons for remaining so steadfast in not contacting me, in any way, shape, or form, she stuck to them strictly and did not deviate. I’d often rationalized that it was easier to have a relationship with her than it was my father, whom I maintained a strained and sporadic relationship with for my entire life.

Closure

When my father died on May 28, 2021, I was searching our email correspondence to find some potential cousins, nieces, and nephews on his father’s side of the family. Mostly to let them know he had died. He had been in contact with some of those people scattered about Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and elsewhere. Some of the emails that we had exchanged about her resurfaced. I saw her full and newest married name and I decided to try and search for her again. This is when I discovered that after searching for nearly 40 years, largely without a trace, I have finally located my mother.

The top search result for her name was her obituary from the funeral home reads as follows:

https://www.jewellrittman.com/obituaries/Carol-Aird/

Carol Janice Aird, 78, of Columbus, died at 7:00am, January 4, 2021, at her residence.

Carol was born September 10, 1942 in Washington State, the daughter of Howard Ross Osborn and Virginia Cole Osborn. She married Dennis William Aird in 2006 while living in LaPorte, Indiana. He passed away in 2014, after returning to Indiana to be with family.

Though Carol’s early life is vague her stories would captivate anyone in the audience. She spoke of being a civilian in France and serving troops through the USO. Later in life Carol enjoyed working in sales for LeCreuset Stoneware Company. Carol was also a very talented artist. She loved animals, especially dogs and horses.

She was preceded in death by her parents and her husband.

No services are planned.

Instantly, I knew that this was indeed my mother. The photo in the obituary was not only unmistakably her, it was the first time I had laid eyes on her for 48 years.

Here’s the email that I sent to my father after he died. I realize it seems kind of odd, but it is well within the spirit of our established communications model:

Date: Mon, 31 May 2021 03:48:24 -0400
Subject: Carol Osborn Aird
From: Dean Paxton
To: David Paxton

Dad,

So this closes everything between all of us:

Here is Carol Janice (Brown, Paxton, Hodge, and Aird) Osborn’s obituary. She beat you to it by nearly six months.

https://www.jewellrittman.com/obituaries/Carol-Aird/

I loved you and will miss you greatly.

.

-ddp-

My father, David Paxton, who would have wished that I posted more and would have hated this post… unexpectedly died yesterday.

His mother was Mary Frances Paxton of Flint, MI and his father was C.D. (Dee) Paxton of Genesee, MI. They preceded him in death in 1994 and 1999 respectively. David was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1944 and lived in Flint, MI, Pittsburg, PA, Tampa, FL and traveled the world many times over as an executive for Westinghouse and later ADP. His final home was in Brandon FL, outside Tampa FL. 

My dad was just a few days shy of his 77th birthday.

He was just starting a new chapter of his life as he had just sold his home on Oakwood Ave, in Brandon FL and had moved into his new home just a couple of miles away in Valrico, FL. He was there for just five days and had not even fully unpacked, or stocked his kitchen yet.

From March 2020, he was mostly shut into his old house as we all weathered the pandemic. He did receive the second dose of Moderna the day prior to his death. He was adamant about avoiding the virus until he could be immunized and saw it as a passport back to normal living. Perhaps as some of us do. He was looking forward to resuming normal activities and he was starting to feel much better as he was having some health problems within the last 3-5 years.

He greatly anticipated being able to visit with his friends, resume his normal pattern of weekly outings, and was even looking forward to a potential trip to Michigan to visit his many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. In November, we were planning a trip to Valrico FL to visit and he was planning a holiday flight to Michigan in late 2021. 

He was happier, more optimistic, and ready to begin a new chapter in life as change was very difficult for him to process, plan, and execute. He was doing his very best, especially with help, support, and encouragement from his many friends. 

At the moment, we are planning the next steps and will try to determine the best way to celebrate his life. 

He was an acutely charismatic, intelligent, and funny person. Sadly however, he thought he was a bad person and secluded himself away from everyone.

In this is a lesson for all of us. We’re all accepted, included, and acknowledged. Anyone who says otherwise, is full of literal s**t.

Audio above: someone, likely using a people finder directory, tried to scam my father. He did briefly fall for it, but offered his entire credit line to try and help his grandson Damian. It was easily debunked and he felt badly. But, he unquestionably volunteered to assist. Take care of your elders, they are falling victim daily to these sorts of scams.

5-29-2021 Updates:

I will be traveling to Valrico/Brandon within the week. We are planning my father’s life celebration for the week of June 6th, 2021. We will likely have it that Tuesday. I will post an update here and to the email list of the exact place, date, and time.

There will also be a second memorial happening in October. Many people who knew my father are traveling and wintering in the north, or in the west. We will gather together then to be able to accommodate those traveling at the moment.

A few people have asked me what David’s middle name was. David did not have a middle name. He went by “David,” “Dave,” and “Paxton.” To some, as a nod to his demeanor, he was also known as “Sir Paxton.”

5-30-2021 Update:

The woman depicted above is indeed my mother, for the couple of people that have asked. I’ll have an upcoming update about that as soon as I can.

6-8-2021 Update:

As promised, I’ve an update about my mother….

If you need to reach out to Dean, this form will reach him quite quickly and directly: