There are many family secrets that are kept for years or even hundreds of years. These secrets can change your life when they come out. These facts can change how we see ourselves and our family, and they might even change the course of our family history. The stories they tell us make us question our relationships and the things we thought we knew.
“My grandmother just got back from a DNA test that helped her find her sister, who she had no idea she had.” She learned that this woman had more siblings. One of them, Edith, was born in the same city and on the same day as my grandmother. They were sure there was a mistake because Edith didn’t look anything like their other children. They even called the hospital, but they said it was not possible. It shocked us that Edith looks a lot like my great-grandmother and great-grandfather, and my grandmother looks a lot like Edith’s family. To find out the truth, my grandmother is going to get another DNA test.
“Until I was about ten years old, I didn’t know that I had a cousin.” He was diagnosed with leukemia as a child. I was a very sensitive child, so my family decided not to tell me until the treatment worked and he got better. It would have been fine if they told me as soon as he was healthy again, but I guess they forgot. The first time I met him, I was confused about how I had forgotten about a whole person.”
“My dad died out of the blue when I was young. Mom never showed any tears. I remember that she went about her day as if nothing had happened after the funeral. I was upset with her when I was 10 years old. I thought that if she didn’t love him, she could at least cry to be nice. Mom also died not long ago. I found my dad’s box of medicines hidden in her closet while going through her things. She had kept all of his expired medicines as a souvenir, and they were inside. Tucked away under the medicine bottles were hundreds of letters addressed to him. She wrote to my dad from heaven about everything, including my schoolwork. She even finished the book my dad started but never got to finish.
Before I knew it, she had been hiding her sadness from me the whole time to keep me safe.
“I remember going to talk to my mom one afternoon.” I asked her if she knew any funny stories. “No… not really!” she says. One more thing, though. Your sister didn’t make it, but you were supposed to be twins. If I didn’t believe her, she told me to talk to my sister, grandmother, or brother. They all said yes, so I did.
I was 17 years old and didn’t know!”
“My great-grandfather made beautiful jewelry.” This man’s work was very smart and beautiful. He gave some unique jewelry to his wife, my great-grandmother, because he loved her so much. We recently chose to tear down their old house and build a new one in its place. There was a chest in the wall! I can’t explain how happy we were when we opened it. It was full of jewelry that was really very beautiful. It turned out that when my mom was young, my great-grandmother told her that her grandfather had hidden three chests. He didn’t say where, though.
Now we need to find the other two chests.”
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