Festive card delivers Christmas cheer for estranged family

A BALLYCLARE man who has been helping his brother-in-law search for the last of his estranged children, struck lucky over the Christmas holidays.

Over the past number of years, Trevor McCusker and his wife Pat from the Grange estate, have been assisting Pat's brother Jackie Corken in a painstaking search for his three children with whom he had lost contact for over three decades.

To date the couple were successful in tracking down Jackie's eldest son, Gary, and his daughter, Wendy. Both were living in different parts of England and subsequent to hearing that their Dad was alive, made trips to Ballyclare for emotional meetings with the father they had neither seen nor heard from in over 30 years.

The success of those filial reunions spurred the McCuskers on in their efforts to try and find Jackie's one remaining son, Gregory.

As luck would have it, a Christmas card posted to an address in Hull by the McCuskers this year, turned out to be the one that would achieve just that.

"I found the address on the internet and sent the card, and over the Christmas holidays received a phone call from Gregory, who confirmed that he was indeed Jackie's son," said a delighted Trevor.

"We were able to give Gregory the contact details for his father and his brother and sister and to let him know that there were several family members on his father's side here in Ballyclare who would love to hear from him.

"Hearing from Gregory was a lovely thing to happen over Christmas. Now the family is complete."

Speaking to the Times this week from England, Gregory said he was incredibly surprised to hear that his father was still alive.

"We'd lost touch for a very long time. My father was quite a heavy drinker and I wasn't sure that he was still alive, so it was good to know that he is. My mother died some time ago from terminal illness," he said.

Gregory, aged 52, served in the army and then as a hod carrier on building sites, before a serious fall from scaffolding rendered him unable to work.

"I'm still not very mobile, but when I am, you never know, I may be able to make the trip over to see my father and visit my extended family in Ballyclare," he said.

"Trevor gave me telephone numbers for my brother and sister and I rang and spoke to them and their families over Christmas. That was fantastic."

Gregory said he had fond memories of being in Ballyclare as a five-year-old child.

"I remember going fly fishing in the Sixmile Water River. My brother said Ballyclare had changed very little in the past 40 years, aside from there being a new Asda store now.

“I also recall going to Carrickfergus where my Dad's sister had a fair. That was great fun altogether because us kids went on all the rides for free. And I also remember Carrickfergus Castle by the sea.

"It would be nice to come back there some day and re-visit those places and to meet all the family."

Originally from Ballyclare, Jackie Corken spent 22 years serving in the army with the Royal Irish Fusiliers before finally settling with his wife and three children in Aldershot.

But then Jackie, who described himself as "a wanderer" left home to take a job as a drummer in a band at a Butlin's holiday camp and was not seen again.

"He was supposed to stay for a season and ended up staying for three years. He lost touch with his wife and children for many years," explained Trevor.

Indeed in the late 1980s Jackie's family were convinced that he had been killed in a fire at King's Cross tube station.

But after reading an article in a London newspaper detailing how his family believed that he was the unidentified victim of the November 1987 tragedy, Jackie wrote home to assure them he was still alive and well.

Soon after re-establishing contact, Jackie's mother sent him enough money for the return fare home to Ballyclare where he has remained since.

Related topics: