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Never Give Up Hope
For sure, it's a joyous story – Chuck recently found his son, Paul, 21 years after the boy disappeared with his mother when he was 4 months old. "It was like you're a brand new father and all of a sudden you're not, like your fatherhood was yanked away," he said, recalling Christmas Eve 1985. He said he returned to his Fort Pierce home that day to find it partially destroyed by fire and his live-in girlfriend and their infant son gone.
For more than two decades he searched for his son but he found no trace, and neither did the private investigator he hired.
"I always had the hope that this day would happen," Westberry said about getting the phone call from Oregon the day before Easter and talking to his son for the first time.
The 49-year-old electrical contractor said he was thrilled, and scared, too.
"What do you say to your adult son the first time you've ever talked to him, when the last time you saw him he wasn't even talking, he was just 4 months old?" Westberry said in his Moon Ranch Road home.
"There is no spectacular sentence that you've been saving up for all these years to finally say," he added. "And even if you had one you would have forgotten it."
So that first conservation was brief, Westberry said.
"I told him I've been waiting 21 years for this day to happen" he said. "I told him I never gave up hope that I would one day talk to you, and I let him know that I never forgot about him."
For eight weeks they've been talking two or three times a week, for an hour or two at a time, getting to know each other.
On Wednesday morning they'll meet each other, when Paul Hardwick and his wife, Amanda, fly in from Oregon.
"This is going to be," Westberry said, "quite a Father's Day."
From their phone conversations, Westberry said he learned that from Fort Pierce his son was moved with his mother to New Jersey, later came back to Fort Pierce and then moved to a small town near Medford, Ore.
Westberry said he's never found out why Paul's mother suddenly left, although he said it came on the heels of a big argument over his wanting to have the boy's last name changed from her's to Westberry.
Why did his son try to find him now?
"I don't know why, and I really don't care why," Westberry said. "I'm just glad he did. I just know that it's wonderful."
One of Westberry's most treasured possessions is a small wooden box in which he keeps three photos of his son when he was a baby.
"I'm sure he's as excited as much as I am about us meeting now," Westberry said. "I want to find out what he's like and let him know what I'm like, and that's what this is all about."
Along with Westberry's 8-year-old daughter, Laura, who lives with his ex-wife in Orlando, Westberry plans to spend Father's Day with his wife and his son and daughter-in-law at Universal Studios in Orlando.
One thing is sure about the week they'll spend together. Westberry, a motorcycle enthusiast and member of the Heartlands Riders Association, is going to teach his son how to ride a motorcycle.
Since learning of his father's passion for riding his Triumph Rocket 3 – "it's the biggest production motorcycle in the world," Chuck says – Paul got a motorcycle endorsement on his driver's license. Paul is going to learn to ride his dad's 1100 cc Honda Shadow, which Westberry will ship to him in Oregon when he goes back.
"He's only been on a bike for three to four hours in a parking lot," Westberry said, "but when he's here I'll teach him how to ride."
From their phone conversations, Westberry said, he's found that Paul shares his own sense of adventure.
"He hasn't had that many opportunities, but he's willing to try about anything, and I like that," he said. "That's always been my perspective and my outlook on life. That's why I'm an airplane pilot and I'm a master scuba diver, why I used to be a skydiver, and why I've always been a biker ... when it comes my time to pass on I will not regret not having tried something."
Beyond developing their father-son relationship, Westberry said, he hopes to impart one thing to his son, who will turn 22 on Aug. 23, the day after Westberry turns 50.
"Don't be afraid to try new things, don't be afraid to go after what you want," he said. "If he gets anything from me, that's what I want him to learn...
"You'll fall flat on your face sometimes, but it's worthwhile and it's worth the chance to succeed."
Kathy Waters/Highlands Today Published: June 8, 2007
