TheBanyanTree: The things you find out googling!

[PJMoney]

Yesterday, for want of something more interesting to do, I was watching Home
or Away" on the HowTo channel.  For those who don't know, this program deals
with British people who are trying to decide whether to move to a new
property in Britain or somewhere in Europe.  Yesterday's program was one of
those end-of-year highlights shows and one of the highlights involved a
property somewhere near Marbella in Spain.

The thing about Marbella is that the name always reminds me of my
ex-husband.  Fifteen years ago his brother, Manuel, told me that Jorge was
living in Marbella.  The woman with whom he lived owned a shop aimed at the
tourist trade and one of Jorge's jobs was to travel back to South America to
buy jewellery and other trinkets for selling on in the shop.  Manuel
couldn't say whether they were married or whether they had any children but
he did provide an address which was all I really wanted.  

The son that Jorge and I had together was having serious difficulties
related to the complete lack of interest his father had shown in him for the
previous 20 years and I was determined to contact Jorge and urge him to
write to his son.  From memory, I told him I'd never forgive him if he
didn't make the effort.

He did make the effort.  Along with the letter he even sent a gift, a silver
wristband from Colombia.  It cheered my son up tremendously but that was the
end of the contact.  We all moved north, us to Darwin and my son to
Townsville.  He got busy studying for his degree in anthropology and,
eventually, the address was lost.   

Since he moved to Darwin my son has occasionally talked about the
possibility of going to Marbella to see his father - not to strike up a
relationship but just to see him, to look into his father's face. Whenever
he did I would go googling to see if I could find an address for Jorge or
for one of his brothers or sisters.  There have been a few good leads but
none of the messages I sent ever produced a response.  In 2008 I suggested
my son try the Red Cross but he had other troubles, no money, and it all
seemed too difficult.

And then, yesterday, there was the mention of Marbella again.  I googled
Jorge's full name and up came a hit on a newspaper website from southern
Chile that mentioned Jorge and his brother Sergio who is some kind of
magistrate in Villarrica.

Jorge seems to have died in September last year.  If it's the right Jorge
the report had his age wrong.  It said he was 59 but he would have been 62.
On the other hand, other details seem to fit; he did have 3 brothers (of
whom Sergio was one) and 2 sisters and he did live in Marbella for decades.


So now I'm waiting to hear from the Spanish embassy about how to get
official confirmation of his death and whether, if he is dead, my son has
any claim on whatever estate he might have left.  But I don't actually have
to wait for an answer to the latter question.  Thanks to the internet I've
learned that under both Spanish and Chilean law my son, being a direct
descendant, is what the Spanish call an "obligatory" heir and what the
Chileans call a "first order" heir.

How I hope Jorge didn't die broke.  It's about time some of his money came
his son's way.

Janice