Elizabeth Welsh

It really is like someone coming back from the dead.

I don't have a sense of anger in this, but I do have a very strong sense of justice.

I know that if this were any other person... Mr. Welsh, is it really to be bad? ...than Patrick Welsh.

Charming, articulate, handsome man.

But that person already would have been behind bars.

How far was I willing to make another exception for Pat?

And can I turn to my sons and say, you were disposable people?

It's okay because look at all the good he's done in Galveston.

This is wrong.

I sent him an email to the attention of Tim Kingsbury. I know. Call me.

A very comfortable lifestyle, a very visible person.

Certainly a better style of life than he had provided for Ted and Chris.

It amazed me. It absolutely amazed me.

It really is like someone coming back from the dead and bringing mystery with them.

The spirit of the times was long blonde hair and beach boy music and the future is all yours to take and everything good is going to happen.

I'm not nervous.

I'm here to see what he has in terms of plans for his future.

Not our future, but his future, as it still affects something that for him became a liability and for me became the greatest assets, our kids.

Out.

Out of jail.

That was different. He said right off the top he was sorry. I didn't believe him. Just like pressing charges, I had to press him to think about the reality of what he's facing now and that he can't just fantasize about returning to Galveston.

I brought up the boys. It was clearly painful for him.

Pat was the kind of person that would be characterized by anyone as a really good catch.

They are the kind of sons that a mother would pray for, let alone be proud of.

My characterization would be they were very, very happy.

I would have to characterize him, too, as a devoted husband and certainly a devoted father. I mean, he was close with those boys.

Thank you, Your Honor.

Every father's day for the past 15 years was stolen from the lives of your sons.

I'm not angry with this man. Not even a little bit? I don't believe so.

I was totally blindsided by it.

He has chosen his course and I have chosen mine. And today. I feel that I have done the right thing for my sons.

We very much wanted to be married.

Pat maintains that he believes he did the right thing when he deserted us.

We had been on a vacation. He was very distraught, and it was hard to get him to stand still to tell me what the problem was.

Thank you, Your Honor. Pat, you started on this sad journey by stealing money from Ohio State University, from your father, and from mine. You took our love, you took our trust, you took our innocence, our home, and any hope we had for a normal life.

Every trip to Colorado, every South Padre Island vacation, every Christmas, every Easter, every Fourth of July, every Father's Day for the past 15 years, was stolen from the lives of your sons. Instead of being a father that they can respect and emulate, you are a 50-year-old kept man. And what was I to make of your last letters to me? Do you remember what you wrote?

You are my light and my deepest love. You know how much I treasure life. I treasure you and your future more. You know how much you are a part of me, so I hope you know that a part of me will live on. know that there was no one on earth that I cherished more. But you did cherish someone more, Pat, and that person was you. I'm sorry for you, Pat.

That was out of the blue.

And out of character, as far as I was concerned, and as far as everyone that knew Pat Welsh was concerned. He was the fair-haired boy.

It doesn't come to closure exactly, but this part of it does. The hurtful part of it that involved deception, betrayal, hardship. It's done. It's done. Now it gets settled. The debts get paid, and we all go on.

It had been difficult to try to explain to the boys. They had to understand that their dad had done something that wasn't right, and he was making that better.

The person that I just saw on those tapes was acting.

My interpretation was that he was acting the part of someone who was supposed to be contrite, who dearly loved his sons and was really trying to do the right thing by them.

He's a devoted husband and certainly a devoted father.

In a wedding anniversary card that he gave me, he slipped a note which said, things will be better, we'll be Pat and Peachy again, just relax and trust me. And I believed that.

an agreement to meet up at my father's house that evening for dinner. Pat owed my father some money and he was going to repay it that night.

And if it was all right with my father, he would repay him the money the next day and that I should go ahead and go home.

He didn't appear on Friday night and Saturday morning and Sunday.

No.

I was devastated.

I know you don't believe this now, but what you needed was freedom from my shadow, from my past. And disgrace. The only way to give you that is through my death.

Please tell the boys I will watch over them from heaven. that I love them very much and have the greatest hope for them. It was bad enough that Pat suddenly was gone, but then to receive this.

Please tell the boys I will watch over them from heaven.

I found out that he hadn't been paying bills for a long time.

I could not afford the house.

I had to give away their dog because I couldn't afford to keep the dog.

If it would just have been me, I don't know where I would be today. I really don't. But because of Ted and Chris, I had no choice. There was nowhere else. to go but on.

Zipped open the envelope and pulled out the form and read it. and stood there in the middle of my living room and read it again. My first thought was, could this possibly be true? When we come back, I think Pat may be alive. I was the one who had to provide the explanations for what was happening.

It doesn't seem like... A lot to have when you think you're closing a chapter on someone's life, does it?

I couldn't replace a father in their lives so easily.

But I could try to make a life for them that meant something.

The boys' survivor benefits, partial survivor benefits that they had received would have to be paid back within 30 days because the number holder was alive. Actually, the terminology was not deceased.

She called me and said, Elizabeth, sit down.

Basically, I called Social Security and said, you know, what are you guys trying to do here?

I mean, we did what we could.

Someone named Tim Kingsbury. And I said, well, Sally, I'm sitting. Who fit Pat Walsh's description. And she said, I think this could be your husband.

Timothy Kingsbury, who's this?

I think Pat may be alive.

We planned a life together forever.