Prock Family History & Genealogy

My husband Robert (Bob) was almost seventeen years old when he was told that he had a different last name than the name he had been using, and that the man he thought was his Father, was really his step-father. Learning this was in actuality, a 'bitter-sweet' (but more sweet) experience for him. Without going into details, let me suffice to say that up until this time, his childhood/family life consisted of beatings, abuse, alcoholism and shame. He was always trying to protect his Mother and/or siblings from the repeated beatings his Father (or whom he THOUGHT was his Father) was inflicting on them, which would then end up with him getting a beating. So when he was told this and he assimilated the initial shock of this new knowledge, the truth brought him an enormous amount of relief to his 'inner self'. Shortly after this, Bob left home and came to California. Many years before, he and his family had lived there and a good friend of his whom he had kept in contact with lived there, so it was 'off to California' at age seventeen. He had been here about a month when we met. My best friend happened to be his best friend's girlfriend and she came over one Saturday afternoon in December of 1956. When she introduced Bob to me, it was like, wow! Rockets and fireworks started going off inside like a 4th of July celebration. It was later that I learned the same thing happened to him when we met. We sat around talking and laughing, and he asked me if I would go out with him and our best friends that evening. I asked my folks if I could go, and they said yes. Our original plans were to go to an amusement park at the beach, but as we were driving, the conversation about ice skating cme up and both my friend and I said we loved to ice skate. So we decided to go ice skating instead. Bob was driving and he pulled into a gas station and parked by a telephone booth. He asked me what my telephone number was and proceeded to call my home. When Mom answered the phone, he told her our plans had been changed and we were going ice sking in Pasadena instead. He knew my Mom was aprehensive about us driving so far to the beach, so he called to let her know we changed our plans and were going to be close to home. That call was the icing on the cake for my folks. He had them (and me) hooked! We had a great time, and even though he did most of his ice skating on his back and was soaking wet most of the evening, we had a great time. He told me that night that he knew we were going to get married. I kind of laughed and told him that we just met, but he said he KNOWS he wants to spend the rest of his life with me and we are going to get married.

That was start of the 'beginning of my life', lol. He was right; After a 'whirl-wind' courtship, we got married a couple of months later and he was drafted into the Army. By now we had found out I was going to have a baby, so we decided that I would stay with my parents while he was overseas. He got to come home when our first daughter was born and while he was home with us, he fed her, bathed her, changed her diapers, and just held her and kissed her little cheeks. He finally got his discharge from the Army and we started our life as a little family. We had been keeping in touch with his Mother and she told us they had to move and she would give us their new address and telephone number as soon as she could. After not hearing from her for a couple of weeks, we called the operator in Texas and were told there was no listing for their name. We kept trying and trying to locate them, but we were always told there was no listing for that name. We could only pray that one of them would call us. Occasionally, he would talk about his Dad and wondered where he was, what kind of a man he was, etc. But by now we had another daughter and a busy family life. Time marches on; Many years pass. We still could not locate his Mom and they had not called us. The girls graduate from high school. Our first daughter got married and a couple of years later, she gave us our first grandchild. Bob and I had now entered the wacky, wonderful, precious world that is reserved only for grandparents! It's the best world ever. One day as Bob and I were talking, the mailman delivered our mail and brought us a miracle. What a delivery we got! His sister Patty had a friend who did research on locating missing persons and he send us a letter with some pertainent information that only the family would know. We called him and after talking, he gave us Patty's phone number and we called her. What a wonderful day that was! We talked to her, and after much crying (from happiness) and talking, she gave us his Mother's number and we called her. We had called patty around noon that day, and from then on, all day and night, we were on the phone with all his siblings. We finally hung up around midnight that night. We sent his Mother and sister a plane ticket and looked forward to the reunion. After no contact for over thirty years, we were going to be reunited with them! What a reunion it was. There was not a dry eye in the entire airport! His sister stayed for a week and had to fly back to her family. His Mother stayed with us for about a month and then had to return home. What a glorious month that was! We would be walking by each other and suddenly one of us would stop and hug and kiss her or she would do the same to us. And talk and laugh. We had over thirty years to catch up on! All to soon it was time for her to get back home. Her health was not too good and she had a couple of appointments she had to keep. As we hugged and kissed her, I looked at her and suddenly knew that was going to be the last time we saw her alive. I believe she knew that, too. About a month later, we got the call that she was in the hospital, not expected to live much longer. As we were making plans to fly there, we got another call saying she had passed away. We flew to Texas for her funeral and were reunited with his brother and other two sisters. It was after this that Bob talked a lot more about his Father. That was when I decided I would try researching on the computer. To make the story short, even though we went down many dead-end streets, so to say, with our heavenly Father's guidance, (and the help of some wonderful people on the internet), I managed to find that his father had passed away, but I also found that Bob had a sister out there that we did not know even existed. What an experience that was for us! We welcomed her and her family into our lives and hearts. Another miracle! A little over six months later, ANOTHER miracle surfaced. I found that Bob had another sibling we did not know existed. I found his brother! This put us on another emotional 'roller coaster' ride; it was exhilarating, exciting, unbelievable, doubtful, exhausting, and wonderful all at the same time! Neither Bob, his brother or his sister knew about each other or that they even existed. Now,in their 60's, they discover each other. To live a lifetime and then find out you have siblings you knew nothing about! You truly have to experience this in order to really understand what I am talking about.

Statistics have shown that when one is raised in an atmosphere of alcoholism, beatings, abuse, problems with the law, the majority of those people will continue on with that type of lifestyle. I am happy to say that my Bob did not follow in that pattern. My Bob is one of the nicest, most kindest and considerate persons you will ever have the pleasure of meeting. He has a heart of gold and is always willing to help out in any way he can. His family means the world to him and they all know it. Bob and I received a gift from the Lord that only a very few have received. We were given a most special, precious love. It came directly from the Lord and has lived in our hearts ever since. It is the strongest, most solid love that exists, and has gotten us through many difficult phases throughout of life together. Only a precious few have been given this miraculous gift, and we thank the Lord for gifting us with it. I am also happy to report that Bob and I celebrated our 50th Wedding Anniversary last April, 2007. Our children and grandchildren gave us a beautiful Anniversary Party at an Italian Restaurant and we celebrated it with many family members and friends. That was the "First Fifty Years of Our Lives". In about seven more weeks, we will celebrate the first year of "Our Second Fifty Years of Our Lives". Thank you Dear heavenly Father.