After finding the brother his mother put up for adoption, Vern is also back in touch with another estranged brother
By the time he found his brother Brian, Vern Hannigan had pretty much decided he’d never have a family again. His mom and stepdad were gone. He was estranged from his other brother, Timothy. Brian, now 49, was adopted at 2 weeks old. Vern had never met him.
“I didn’t have any family, in my mind,” he said. “I just felt that connection going away.”
Vern’s initial foray on Ancestry.com turned up more than 600 relatives, including some first cousins he didn’t recognize, but no brothers. He found his dad, but his dad didn’t want to meet him.
“Then, one day, I see this message,” said Vern. “It says, ‘Hi, I’m Brian. I’m new on Ancestry, it shows you’re close family to me, related to my mother. I was adopted at 2 weeks old.’ This is my brother, the one I’ve been looking for since I was 14. I’d given up. He didn’t even know about our brother Timothy.
“Hearing from Brian was the best cry I ever had.”
Vern hasn’t left his block for years. He lives in a room right above the Street Roots office on Northwest Davis Street, and he loves coming into the Street Roots office, “where everybody knows your name,” he said. “But I don’t really open up too much outside.” When he sells the paper, it’s in front of the Starbucks right across the street on Northwest Third Avenue.
“I got really lucky to be housed, but after being homeless for so many years, I still have the mentality that I’m homeless.”
It’s a mentality, he explained, that taught him it’s not safe to be outside.
So when Brian and Vern got together, in March and again in August, it was in Vern’s room. With Brian, Vern had no trouble opening up. They visited for hours, took photos. Vern brought Brian up to date on everything he could think of about growing up with their mom in Springfield, Ore.
Vern was 2 years old when his mom – very young and a single mother – gave birth to Brian.
“She was so overwhelmed with having a second baby she put Brian up for adoption,” he said. When Vern was 4 years old, his mother married and his brother Timothy was born.
Vern’s teenage years weren’t easy. His stepdad treated him like his own, but the rest of the family was “brutal,” Vern said. He was 14 years old when his mother told him about the brother he’d never really met. She said they were “like twins.” For years, Vern literally believed he had a twin.
Brian’s adoptive parents raised him in Coos Bay. In a strange coincidence, Vern had a girlfriend for a while who lived in nearby North Bend, so he visited there often. She and Brian went to the same high school.
“Finding Brian has changed my life,” said Vern. “He’s like this catalyst to pull the family together.” He’s helping bring Vern and his estranged brother Timothy together. For years, Timothy shut Vern out, believing Vern had made up stories about being mistreated by their stepdad’s family. But since Brian’s met Timothy and visited him several times, Timothy has started to warm to seeing Vern again. They’ve created a family Facebook page, where Vern keeps up with the lives of Timothy’s three teenage kids. At some point, Vern said, the three brothers will get together.
Meanwhile, Vern’s uncle, who Vern also discovered online, is “working on” his dad, who lives in Pilot Rock. “Dad finally said that if I show up in Pilot Rock, he’ll meet me,” Vern said.
Vern recently started selling Street Roots at the Trader Joe’s on Northwest Glisan Street and 21st Avenue – venturing beyond his block in Old Town. He’s very excited about the opportunity to sell more papers.
“Street Roots has totally given me the confidence to get out of my room,” he said. “It’s a huge step for me.”
It hasn’t always been easy revisiting old memories, making up for lost time, being shut out and trying again.
“It’s really overwhelmed me,” said Vern. “I discovered new emotions that were never there. But it’s worth the price because it’s definitely started healing old wounds.
“It’s so nice to have family again after 30 years.”
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