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Sampson
superintendent finds his father
Public Information Officer Bill Poston, who monitors the web site's e-mail, responded and sent the family the phone number of Sampson Correctional Institution. Nichols said he'd been looking for his son for 46 years. Muller's mom remarried and the new family moved several times. Nichols himself remarried and had seven more children, but he never forgot Muller. He even hired a private detective who got close, concentrating on the Norfolk area when Muller was superintendent at Gates Correctional Center. Muller was teary-eyed after talking with his dad and said his wife had never seen him so excited. Muller and his father would have talked longer, but prison duties called, and Muller had to go back to the prison to check out the nighttime lighting for the new second-shift laundry operation. He said he walked around the laundry about a dozen times. Someone offered him a ride, and he declined, too excited to sit still. He couldn't sleep that night. "I always wondered if he was still alive," Muller said. "But I had rather not know than be rejected." Muller said he went up to Nova Scotia several years ago, but was too afraid to make any phone calls. Apparently, his father felt the same way. It was Muller=s cousin who called first, then urged Nichols to call his son quickly. "He was all choked up on the phone and said he didn't know if he could talk," Muller said. But the conversation kept going. "Its a good feeling to know someones been looking for you almost as long as youve been looking for them," he said. "Ive been getting e-mails from others welcoming me to the family, and theyve been sending pictures. They get excited like I do very outgoing." Muller had a hard time describing his joy. "This is not like the birth of a child, its not like a promotion, its not like Christmas, its not like anything Ive ever experienced before. Its actually a burden thats lifted, a burden I didnt know I was carrying." Muller wanted to fly to Toronto to meet his dad over Thanksgiving, but money was tight with his second child on the way. He had to be patient and wait until Jan. 2 when his father and step-mother planned to drive down on their way to Florida. Nichols warned his son that his step-mother gives hugs and kisses. His new sister, Karen, told Muller that shed never seen his father this happy, that his life was now full. "You have been their quest all these years," his sister said. u |