I was an only child.
At least I thought I was.
In 1967, when I was a senior in high school, I discovered letters to my Dad from Darrell Wingard who I'd been told was a cousin of Dad's. Darrell addressed him as "Dear Dad," which was a shock and a puzzle. I never approached my Dad directly about it, but I did ask my Mom.
She told me that Dad had been married once before and had a son. So Darrell was my half brother, one I never had a chance to know.
He was many years older than I. He'd been to visit us in our Daly City (California) home when I was very young. My memory of him is fleeting, just that he had on a nice dark coat (which was what gentlemen wore then) and he had a jar of M&Ms ... for me! My regret is that I cannot remember his face.0
In June of 1956, Darrell was killed in a spectacular automobile accident on the coast highway near Santa Cruz, California. He and some of his buddies had been on the beach in the early morning hours. They drove their two vehicles up onto the highway, and were struck by an oncoming vehicle traveling at high speed.
The San Francisco newspaper ran a front-page article about the accident which included a black-and-white photo of Darrell. It's not clear when the photo was taken, and its quality was poor. But I could tell that he had very light-colored hair and a nice smile on his face. I'd like to locate the actual photo some day.