Taking Giant Steps to Become a Family Again

An old photograph showed a man with thinning, gray hair holding a little girl with long, blond hair in his arms. Leo Iverson, 87, examined the faded image and tried to figure out how long it had been since he’d seen Gina.

“She was 3 when that picture was taken,” he said. “I saw her a couple of years after that.”

Minutes later, Gina Erickson, now 26, entered the room, assisted in her wheelchair by her boyfriend and stepmother.

“Hello, Grandpa Leo.”

“Oh, finally,” he murmured as they embraced.

So continues the bittersweet tale of reunion between an ailing, young woman and the father she believed had died long ago, a sequel to my column Sunday.

Worried about her own mortality, Gina Erickson began searching for her paternal grandparents when she discovered that her father, Keith Iverson, was still alive. Twenty years earlier, Gina and her mother were living in a remote town in Canada when Iverson’s mother notified Gina’s family that the girl’s father had been killed in an airplane crash. Keith Iverson suspects that the bizarre actions of his mother, who died in 1991, may have been partly rooted in mental illness that wasn’t diagnosed until later in life.

On Monday, Keith and Sharon Iverson looked on as Gina and her grandfather were reunited in the living room of his Burbank home. I was invited too, along with a photographer, in part because Gina wants to promote awareness about her rare affliction.

Reflex sympathetic dystrophy disorder, or RSD, is a rare, painful disease of the nervous system that put Gina in a wheelchair. One of the few “blessings” of her condition, she says, is that it inspired the search that led to her reunion with her father.

Gina, who lives in north San Diego County, wanted to share the story of their reunion. She called me after her father had shown her a recent column about another RSD patient, Cynthia Toussaint, and her longtime love, John Garrett. Sharon Iverson had clipped out the article.

Gina was one of several readers who have contacted me since that story appeared, describing how it took doctors nearly 13 years to diagnose Cynthia’s condition. Only recently have support groups been formed for victims of RSD. Only recently has Gina met other people who have the disease--and she wanted to meet Cynthia.

One reason is that they have more than RSD in common. Both were studying ballet when they were stricken. And, Gina says, she and her boyfriend, David, found it “inspiring . . . to see another couple hanging on that long.”

Gina and Cynthia have since spoken on the phone and made plans to meet either Monday night or today. Gina was hoping Cynthia and John could attend a fund-raiser Saturday to benefit the Wings of Joy Foundation, an RSD awareness group that Gina is launching.

But Monday evening, Gina and her grandfather were more interested in looking over old scrapbooks and reviving buried memories.

The reunion has been joyous, but there is an awkward side. Gina cringed upon reading my description of her as her paternal grandmother’s favorite.

That’s how the relationship had been portrayed to me, but Gina figures it’s just because she was the baby of the bunch. She worries how her half-sister and the cousins she’s never met may react.

At any rate, Keith believes it was his mother’s affection for Gina, and her emotional instability, that led her to tell such big lies.

Back then, Keith says, there was bitterness between him and Gina’s mother, Toni, and there were disputes with his mother. She was a manipulative person, he says. Just how manipulative he never imagined.

First, she warned Gina’s mother that her ex-husband and his new wife wanted full custody of Gina--a notion Keith and Sharon say is untrue. Rather than get into a tug-of-war over Gina, Keith said he decided to wait for Gina or her mother to contact him.

Keith suspects that his mother later thought that, if Toni believed Keith was dead, she might return to Southern California, enabling her to be reunited with Gina.

As it happens, she died four years before the family reunion took place. Keith visited her nearly every day.

In her last two years, the woman was often delusional. Had she ever wished to make amends, it was too late. She had lost the ability.

Scott Harris’ column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Readers may write to Harris at the Times Valley Edition, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth 91311. Please include a phone number. Address TimesLink or Prodigy e-mail to YQTU59A ( via the Internet: YQTU59A@prodigy.com).