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It took my mother's death for me to discover the family I never knew I had.

Somehow, there's a reason for this reunion, and I hope in the coming weeks and months I'll discover this, or perhaps we'll discover it together.

This amazing discovery happened a week ago today when I met my sister and brother on the phone for the first time. I discovered I had four siblings, probably a fifth, and that one, my brother Andy, died a little over a year ago after a lengthy illness. I have a brother and two sisters who live in Southern California, and, likely, a third sister who, like me, is estranged from my father's core family. I'm the oldest of the Kohn gang, and like me they have a bounty of children.

My brother Dan Kohn, named after an uncle, is the eldest of these siblings, followed by Amy Jones and Tracy Jones (yes, the ladies are married to brothers). Andy was the youngest.

Among them are eight nieces and nephews I also never knew I had.

I've known since the 1990s my father had died but never knew for sure he had more kids. I'd suspected all along he had moved back to New York after leaving my mother, though in 1978, at age 17 and after a trip out West with mom, she told me she was surprised I hadn't looked up my father while we were in the L.A. area.

It registered, yet didn't. Why, I thought at the time, would I care to meet a man who had foresaken me? I didn't really care much about him at the time. But over the years things change. As you might have read at my companion blog, CancerVivor.blogspot.com, I developed cancer late last year and defeated -- hopefully permanently -- it earlier this year. So reality hit me in the face like a brick.

About a month or more ago I did some research online and found the obituary for my father, Mel Kohn, who passed away in January 1992. It listed four children as survivors. That is how I tracked down my West Coast family. From that obit in the Orange County Register.

But do you know how many Dan Kohns there are in Southern California? A bunch. And since then, both Amy and Tracy became Joneses and Andy passed away. Still, I found a number for Amy and on Thursday, April 17, about a week and a half after Mom died, I dialed her number. I waited until about 1 p.m. local time, since there's a three-hour difference and didn't want to disturb Amy too early.

When she answered the phone, I asked if it was Amy, and she said yes. I then said, "I think we are related. I think we have the same father."

She was taken aback but not shocked. She kinda sorta knew I existed, she said amid tears from us both. It was amazing. I had a sister.

But not only that, I had another sister and a brother. Amy and I chatted for about an hour, maybe more, as we learned a bit about one another and our new families. She has four kids, Dan two and Tracy two. I still have an aunt, the widow of Daniel Kohn, Joan, and four cousins, one of whom who lives about two hours away in Sarasota.

Imagine, going from only child to eldest of a handful. As Dan said when I spoke to him later that day, "It's a lot to digest."

But we can digest it over time as I learn more about my new family.