This week’s episode started off with twenty-eight year old Desirae Roller. She had a unique search that she desperately needed Pam Slaton’s help with. When she was young, her parents divorced and agreed upon shared visitation. However, at the age of 2, Desirae’s father picked her up and never brought her back. Her mother did everything she could to find her daughter. Her father moved her to Arizona. Around six years old, her father was pulled over by the police. From jail, he called her mother and asked her to come and get their daughter.
Her mother went into daycare that day….asking her daughter if she knew who she was. She did! Desirae didn’t hear from her father again until she was 11. Her family received a call from the hospital saying that her father desperately wanted to tell her he loved her and was sorry. Still so young, all she could do was cry and tell him that she loved him. Her father, Bruce Leonard Ritchie, died within hours. Unable to know her father, Desirae was hopeful Pam could help her find relatives from her father’s side of the family.
As the search began, Pam turned up interesting information. Desirae’s father had purposely changed his OWN birth year and last name. Originally born a Cook, for some reason he had changed his last name…possibly because he didn’t want his family to find him. Pam searched to find out why. Pam asked Desirae to try to get her grandfather’s, Charles Cook, obituary from Vermont. She found it. Within the article, her father’s sibling was named. Pam was able to find information on his half-brother, Anthony Cook. THEN Pam did something she never does! She told Desirae to go ahead and knock on her uncle’s door.
Luckily he opened it. After Desirae shared her story, he glanced over Bruce’s birth certificate and noticed something was off…his father’s middle name was different, he didn’t recognize the mother’s name, Dorothy Powers. BUT the places and so much more seemed as if this was possible. Wanting to help, Anthony called his mother Anna to ask her for more information.
What a bombshell to the family….Anna confirms that she has heard of the name Dorothy Powers from he husband, but knows nothing of a name change or of a son he may of had. I can’t help but feel that this just opened a BIG can of “WHAT?”. They couldn’t help but wonder if there were others out there. Suspicious of his father his whole life, Anthony shares that he wished he would had known he had a brother. Apparently his mom had a rough marriage and his father wasn’t faithful.
Confident that they are related, “Uncle Tony” welcomed Desirae into the family with a hug. Showing her photos of her grandfather…he truly wished he had known his brother. Desirae tried to share the little bit of information she knew as they both mourned the lost opportunity.
When Desirae returned to California, she visited her father’s grave for the first time. An unmarked grave of someone who had loved her so much. Through this search, Desirae gained an uncle and a better understanding of her father’s life. Truth can bring pain…but it also can bring love. Enjoy your new family, Desirae and Anthony!
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I love blogging about the shows. Thank you!
Just googled Desirae Roller and she has a couple casting/modelling/acting profiles out there. Very professional. So how real is this story? Hard for me to take it seriously given the casting of a semi-professional actress.
Hey Skeptical, please do some MORE research before you speak your mind. She has never been compensated for anything she has ever done. Her story is very real, I can assure you of that. She was not casted, she was hand picked because of her story. Have a nice day!
Will just for your info the cementary where they buried her father Bruce Leonard Ritchie does show on record, but the actual burial site Desirae and her husband was standing on at the unmark grave was not actually filmed at the historic Evergreen Cementary. Was sort of funny that the grounds keeper who came to show them the burial site was careful to wear a Evergreen Cementary Cap to smokescreen the set-up. I guest they didn’t want to film it at its actually location for either privacy reasons or maybe unauthorized filming. But Desirae did do some great acting crying over a grave that didn’t exist would U think.
Jim you could not be more wrong! In fact most everything you said is wrong. Desirae is not an actor, she is a normal everyday person who works a normal job. I was at the gravesite, I cried, I suppose that is fake as well? Where do you come up with your info? Don’t post unless you know the person, makes you look very incompetent.