Legal Business in Seattle

 Yesterday morning I found myself sending an email to a pair of attorneys at a trial law firm in a suburb of Seattle. I marked it as personal and in the subject line I said that I was looking for information on a former senior partner in the firm, in his eighties and now retired.

I had found him online as a part of search regarding my parents and our family history. It had never occurred to me to look for him in a search before, which struck me as odd. As I waited for the results to come, I hoped not to see an obituary, and I was gratified that I did not. Instead I found the still existing page at the aforementioned trial law firm. There was no contact information on the site other than the phone number of the firm, and the email addresses of the two remaining partners, one whom apparently being senior, as his name was tacked on those of the firm itself, which still retained that of the retired gentleman I mentioned, in the way such firms do in order to retain continuity. Indeed there was no evidence of anyone bearing the first name of the firm. Such are the lineages preserved in such titles.

Knowing that I was contacting attorneys on personal business, I made my email short and sweet, stating that I was looking to contact their former partner. I clarified that I was looking for Don M----s, who had gone to Iowa State in the mid 1960s. He and his wife Judy were dear friends of my late parents, David and Maureen Trump, when all of them lived in married student housing. 

I said that my parents always spoke so highly of Don and Judy* (whose obituary I had found, alas). I asked if possible if they would forward my email to Mr. M----s, and that I would be grateful for any assistance.

I wondered if I'd hear back. In the afternoon my phone buzzed with the notification from apparently the senior of the two lawyers, the one whose last name was now at the end of the firm's name. He told me Mr. M----s was still alive. He said he would be glad to forward my email to him. He expressed condolences for the death of my parents. It was exactly what I hoped for.

I hope to hear from him, even a brief message. I can hardly wait to tell my sister Kate, as I think she would love to hear whatever he might say.

Also one more note. I have to find my baptismal certificate from early November 1964, signed by the rector of St. John's-by-the-Campus in Ames. It is somewhere in my possessions in the garage. It would confirm what I am almost certain of, namely that Mr. M-----s is my godfather (and his late wife was my godmother).

*This is the Judy I was thinking of in this previous post. Turns out she's alive! There are so many people with the name and close and ages. You can find false obituaries for lots of people.