Family search succeeds
by Kelly Feser Eells

A "little dumb luck" and a lot of perseverance were the perfect combination for Ojai's David Weimer last month. On April 25, he reunited with three of his five brothers and sisters for the first time in 45 years.
Weimer, 46, is still pinching himself. "I can't begin to describe how great I feel," he said, though the ear-to-ear grin he's been wearing for the last month and a half does some of the describing for him.
The fifth of six children born to Bonnie and Ray Beck, David and his four older siblings were already in the state foster care system and/or living with their adoptive families when his younger brother, Jim, was born. "He's the only one who grew up with her (Bonnie Beck, who remarried some time after Jim's birth in 1957, and reclaimed her youngest child from the foster care system.)
Weimer always knew he was adopted, just like "I always felt I had an older sister."
In 1993, " After looking, really, all my life," he found his biological parents' names through Logan County, Colo., courthouse records, and made further headway in 1995 by contacting the Mormon Church and accessing its extensive genealogical archives. He learned his father had died, and, from information pieced together from the death certificate and the obituary, he discovered he had an aunt living in Wisconsin.
Weimer's aunt had his biological grandfather's address and phone number, and, through him, Weimer was put in touch with the little brother he didn't know he had.
"I drove 1,400 miles to Julesburg, Colo., to meet him and stayed for a week." He recalls how he recognized Jim, waiting in a fairgrounds parking lot for their initial meeting, from a distance. "He was standing there, like I always did, one hand in his pocket, the other on the toothpick in his mouth." Weimer was further amazed to discover that he and his brother had a girl in common, too. "We realized that, for a while, we were living about 70 miles apart. Which, in this (rural) part of Colorado, was pretty close. Anyway, a girl I'd asked out - who turned me down because she was dating someone else - turns out to have been Jim's girlfriend, then, later on, his wife. They're not married anymore, but, still. Amazing."
Shortly after or toward the end of the visit, Weimer learned that he had, in fact, three brothers and two sisters. So he got even busier.
In 1997, he found his two older brothers, Mike and Rick, in Fairfield, Calif. He visited one in person, spoke with the other by phone, and learned that they had been raised together, adopted by the same family. Still, even though "they had an identity I didn't have," all of the brothers admit to having had some sort of "detachment, trust, and /or commitment" issues at some point in their lives.
Weimer's sister, Suzan, had also known she was adopted and had been searching for the "two" older brothers (Rick and Mike), she knew she had. When she found out she had two younger brothers, and a sister, as well, she was so stunned that her first words were, "Don't lie to me!"
Weimer notes that, like him, Suzan had recently taken advantage "of the more lenient adoption laws" to expand her search. He chuckles about "teasing her for paying way too much" for one service, though he's invested a considerable sum over the years himself.
Happy as the five are (one brother was unable to attend the April reunion), "There's one sister we haven't been able to find - Debbie."
MSNBC got interested in the story earlier this year, after hearing about the sibling's upcoming reunion. "They did a 'Do you know where Debbie's at?' show, and, on May 10, they contacted us to ask about doing an update."
In addition, "Montel Williams expressed an interest in the story. I heard from his producers on May 12." Weimer is hopeful that, with "all these people knowing what we're doing," Debbie will be at the next reunion.
Debra Lynn Beck was born in April 1954, in Logan County, Colo. That information, plus the "one picture I have, when she was a baby," keeps Weimer from feeling "100 percent healed," despite feeling "greater than I've ever felt."

© 2002 The Ojai Valley News

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