(First airdate: December 1, 2020) CHRIS JAMES: AN ADOPTION STORY. Our Town Host Maryanne McNellis interviews Chris James, Alaskan adventurer & contractor. Chris was born in England and moved to the USA with his family as a child. He vaguely knew that he was adopted but didn’t much care. He was a restless youth who dropped out of high school, driving to Alaska mid-winter with no clear plans – and no money. He hustled his way through jobs, starting in a crab cannery and eventually on board almost any sort of vessel in the Alaskan fishing fleet. When his first child was born he began to think about a more stable existence. Eventually, he founded a construction company in Port Angeles. The impending birth of his first grandchild prompted him to seek out his biological mother. To his profound shock, he found her. Although his Irish mother was dead he suddenly had five Irish siblings, aunts, uncles and a huge number of cousins. They have embraced him into a family he never knew or even dreamed of!
