When I was 21, I was dating my husband and he took me to New York City for St. Patrick's Day. On the evening of St. Patrick we went to a bar on Times Square, I think it was called Smith's. We were going to have a drink and people-watch and possibly meet interesting Irish characters. My husband spotted an old man, sitting alone, having a drink and he was sure the old man was Irish. But he wasn't. He was actually a Greek/Macedonian, he was from the same parts as my grandpa and was about the same age as my grandpa. Chris and I became good friends, exchanged addresses and telephone numbers and spoke a couple of times during the year. The next year before St. Patrick's day I sent Chris a letter telling him to meet us at the same bar on the night of St. Patrick. And we met again. We had a drink or two that night. We spoke once or twice on the phone during 2002. After that we exchanged Christmas cards and I just found one as I was going through some shoe boxes of cards. There is no date on it, and I can't quite remember when it was sent. Maybe 2005 or so. I can't remember the last time I heard from Chris, but it has been several years at least.
This morning I decided to call the number I used to have for him.
Me: Hi I am looking for Chris Konstantino.
Voice (in an East Asian, middle east accent): Who? What's the name?
Me: Chris Konstantino. He used to live there in unit number....hm....
Voice: Oh my Gosh! Chris Konstantino!!!! He's been gone, long time, maybe 10 years ago.
Me: 10 years, couldn't be.
Voice: Yes, he checked out, long time. His health wasn't good, he couldn't breathe, he was on oxygen. He had to go, you know.....
Me: Are you saying he just moved out, or he is gone as in he passed away?
Voice: No he moved, but I tell you he was sick so I don't know. He may be in a nursing home, but that was long time ago. He was sick. You are a relative you need to find him.
Me: I am not related, no. He was a friend. He was where my grandpa was from, and he was about the same age. I didn't think he had family so I used to write him sometime, you know for Christmas and such.
Voice: oh yeah, yeah. I don't mean to break your heart, but he may be gone. His health, I tell you when he left......yeah it wasn't good. If you find him let me know OK.
Me: I will, thank you. Bye.
So how do you find someone that you only have a name for and an address that is no longer current? I am not sure of exact age, 70+ I think. White Pages or 411.com didn't give me much. I have a scribble in my address book of a friend he had in Colorado with a phone number. I called the number but it's been disconnected.
2 comments:
I hope you're able to find him, Vesna! Has Google turned anything up? Did he ever mention the name of any younger relatives? They could be on Facebook...
Katya, no he never mentioned family, except for the friend I had scribbled in my address book, a woman with a very American name that I am not exactly sure what the relation was. It's a Colorado address/phone, and that's the phone that has been disconnected. Google gives a lot of results but I don't know enough to eliminate the ones that couldn't be from the ones that may be possibly him.
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