Milton Chalifoux had already experienced enough heartbreak to last a lifetime when he was dealt one more blow last week.
After he and his siblings were the subject of an article in last Sunday's Arizona Daily Star, he learned that one sister had died.
Chalifoux, a Tucson resident since the 1970s, and his three siblings were given away to strangers in 1948 by a mother who lacked the ability to care for her children. At the time, a photo of the family appeared in a Chicago newspaper. It showed the mother hiding her face from the camera while her four children huddled on the stoop of their Chicago home next to a sign that read: "4 Children for Sale Inquire Within."
The siblings were separated for decades and Chalifoux, in particular, suffered an abusive childhood on an Indiana farm. Since then he has had limited contact with his brother and sisters, yet he was no less bereft to learn one of his sisters, Sue Ellen Chalifoux, 67, of Indiana, had died in hospice care July 9.
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"May she rest in peace & serenity," Chalifoux wrote of his "beloved sister Sue Ellen," in an email to the Star last week.
Kimberly Matas
