The holidays can be a wonderful time. It is the perfect excuse to get together with family and friends to talk about common memories and to reminisce. As everyone sits around the table, eating turkey and arguing about why their football team is better than yours, sometimes discussions turn to someone that is NOT sitting at the table, but is very much on your mind. It could be a cousin that you were close with growing up, or perhaps a special someone from years ago – maybe the “one that got away”. Maybe it was a close friend from high school. Whatever the circumstance, the holidays tend to make us think about that void that we have in our lives that only that particular person can fill. The one that would make the holidays a little bit brighter if they were part of your life again in some way.
I started thinking about this recently. You see, every year about this time, we get two types of phone inquiries: the cheater call – “What are they up to? Who are they with,” etc. Those tend to make me feel bad since the holidays will not be quite the same when that someone that was special to you is spending the holidays with someone else. I always try my best to get answers for these clients so they can start the New Year with a fresh start – free from unnecessary “baggage” in their lives.
But the other call we get quite a bit this time of year (and my personal favorite) is for missing person searches. To find that special someone in their life that they lost touch with for one reason or another. Maybe it’s the one they went to school within Richmond Hill or the one they dated from Woodhaven. Perhaps it is the cousin that lived in Rosedale that you haven’t seen in decades and has since moved. These are the ones that we really enjoy doing the most because nothing makes us happier than a happy ending.
I was talking with my husband the other day about a couple that came to us last year about this time, searching for his birth mother. He was adopted by a wonderful family, however, he still had that void that was filled with unanswered questions. The wife reached out to us and wanted to surprise her husband by locating his birth mother. She had his birth certificate and that was about it. She reached out in hopes that we could help. A birth certificate has quite a bit of important information when trying to find someone. It tells where they were born, their name and their parents’ names (or at least one parent), and sometimes the doctor. These are some very good clues. It’s difficult, especially with women, as they often change their names due to marriage, but in spite of the obstacles, we still have had success and did in this case. This translated into a very happy ending just in time for the holidays, for this couple in Jamaica Queens.
We had another case where a woman was looking for her sister, whom she had lost touch with for many years. They had an argument and both were too stubborn to contact the other first. Days turned into weeks, which turned into months, which turned into years. Finally, when our client decided enough was enough, she discovered that her sister had moved. She called us and we were able to find her sister in time for them to be reunited on New Year’s Day. She reached out to us and sent us a photo of the two of them, smiling and dressed up to celebrate a new beginning. This photo now hangs next to another favorite, a case in which a daughter was introduced to her father at age 56. He did not know that the woman he left behind during the war had blessed him with a child. He had never been fortunate enough to have any children, and now he did. They are now smiling together on our wall. Another happy ending.
Call us old-fashioned or sentimental, but we cannot help but smile when we think of some of the cases that we have handled – especially during the holiday season, that were very special. We reunited a couple of high school sweethearts once that were both widowed and had not seen or heard from each other in several decades. When one reached out to us for help, we not only found the other, but they were in the same borough! How they never ran into each other in all that time still baffles us. But sure enough, one was in Williamsburg and the other was living in Bushwick. As the song goes, “it’s a small world after all.”
But while many of us may have someone on our minds, it takes quite a bit of courage to take that first step and call us. It takes a lot of emotional strength and determination to put yourself out there and be vulnerable enough to take the chance and reach out to someone that we have not seen or heard from in a while, or perhaps ever. We understand that it makes it even more complicated when you have to pay to have a stranger help you with this potentially life-altering decision, and to put your heart and emotions out there in the hopes of a happy ending. In this unprecedented time, money is scarcer than ever. So to pay a chunk of money to someone with the hopes of a positive outcome is both a gamble and scary at the same time. However, the payoff can be priceless.
With the holiday season literally weeks away from starting, we decided that we wanted to help encourage you to take that leap of faith and look for the person. For the first time ever since we opened our doors, we are going to give a one-time 10% discount for any missing persons search – but only until December 31st, 2021. So if you have been toying with the idea of searching out that someone special from your past, now is the time to do it. Sign up today and we will do our best to find the person before the end of the holiday season and save you some money in the process – to perhaps buying a gift for that someone special when you finally reconnect. It’s our gift to you, whichever holiday you celebrate. So from Hanukkah candles to rekindled old flames, missing persons to mistletoe, all we want for (fill in your holiday here), is you – reunited with your person for a very happy ending. Just mention this blog article to us at the time of our free consultation, and you will receive the 10% discount (until 12-31-21).
Investigreat, LLC is a recognized full service Private Investigation Agency that is fully licensed, insured and bonded, handling cases in Queens NY, Brooklyn NY, Bronx NY, New York City, Staten Island and Long Island NY and all over Connecticut. Terri Dornfeld along with her husband, Adam have been working cases for Legal Teams, Insurance Companies, Private Businesses, Municipalities, School Systems and general investigation services for the public since 1992.
Investigreat, LLC | Private Investigators serving Jamaica NY, Brooklyn NY, Queens NY, Connecticut | Office: 718-412-1845 | Text: 718-309-1269