she was adopted, born out of wedlock from an uncle who did not know she existed.  He apparently got her birth mother pregnant before going off to war and she quietly had the baby and gave her up for adoption.

It was really fun going to meet her.  We have stayed in touch and I have really loved making that connection.  It turns out that she was about 11 years old when my dad was a junior at Wake Forest College and lived a block from the campus, her father was an attorney.  Dad would have walked by her home many times through the years and had no idea she was his niece.