Passport

A few weeks ago I was invited to speak at a writers conference in Mexico. I haven't been outside the U.S. since I was a teenager, and that was a one-day trip into British Columbia, Canada.

I agreed, then learned I needed a passport to travel to Mexico. The process of applying didn't seem particularly difficult...until I saw the questions I had to answer about my parents. My dilemma is that my parents have been dead for many years and I have limited family documents.

I had to obtain a copy of my birth certificate--at least I knew where I was born--and I found the answers to some of the questions there. I found the rest of the answers by digging around in my files, but it took a while.

I'm lucky I didn't need information about my grandparents. I might never have completed the application...