“He carried this secret with him for so long and died without ever having told anyone.
It must have haunted him.”
Note: Discussions of death, suicide, and abuse.
“That my uncle passed from AIDS and not cancer like he said.
Turned out he had been sick for a really long time.
Gutted he never felt like he could share with us and went through it alone.”
imperator-paloma
2.
“My great-grandfather had another family that wasn’t revealed until after he passed in his late 90s.
He lived ‘til I was in my mid-20s, and not once would I have ever suspected it.
It turned out my great-grandmother knew but hid it from everyone in the family.
She actually knew his other kids and families.
She told my dad while in hospice.”
Turns out it was his other family."
sideofricepilaf
3.
“My grandfather always kept the door of his home office locked.
When she moved into assisted living last year, my mom and I cleaned out her house.
And the office was filled with photographs.
My grandfather was a photographer, so this was no surprise.
Mostly, they were from his job, family, the house, vacations, etc.
But then I found a locked file cabinet drawer and got curious/suspicious.”
My dad died in 2004.
So I have a half-brother about 20 years older than me."
“Since I was the first to find out, I was tasked with telling my mother.
The whole thing makes me incredibly sad when I think about it.
It must have haunted him.”
frenchbritchick
5.
“Well, this is not so much disturbing as it is awesome.
My grandfather kept a big safe in the basement of his house.
“My grandfather, who we called Opa, was a carpenter his entire life.
When my grandmother passed, Opa began building his own coffin, and it was beautiful.
adelaide129
Here’ssome photosof Opa(and his coffin), provided by the original poster.
“That my dad had been recording and listening to all our phone calls.
We found boxes of cassette tapes he had hidden in his shop after he died.”
“Disturbing only because it was sad.
We found evidence that a beloved uncle was closeted gay.
We discovered this while clearing out his home after his funeral.
Scrappy_Larue
9.
“Not necessarily disturbing, but my grandfather knew he had cancer six months before he passed away.
Even when his health declined rapidly in the last two weeks, he never said anything about it.
I kind of knew that was going on.
He’s too stubborn to let his family take care of him or be bedridden.”
Owlettehoo
10.
“Uncle died from auto-erotic asphyxiation.
So it came out that he was into auto-erotic asphyxiation.”
Nkklllll
11.
“My great-grandma saved $13 million over her lifetime.
It all went to my grandpa.
He remarried a nutjob.
He got lymphoma and died five years after the diagnosis.
The day he died, his wife took their picture off the wall when they declared him dead.
“After my baby brother died, as big bro, I seized every piece of technology he had.
My mom wanted his phone, so I sanitized the fuck out of it.
He wished that he and I had a dad like me when we were growing up.
Instead, he had me.
I did what I could.
I was only eight years older and a child raising a child.
I miss my brother so much.”
AxalonNemesis
13.
“Not necessarily disturbing, but surprising.
feels like both my grandparents had multiple affairs, and my father was the product of one.
They stayed married to each other for more than 50 years, though.”
sweaty_yeti
14. hannahstohelit
15.
“That my godfather was abusive to his wife and had tried to strangle her once.
EarlGreyhair
16.
Turns out he was captured, sent to a prisoner-of-war camp, and worked on the Burma-Thailand railway.”
strangersIknow
17.
This included an illegitimate daughter.
Cunova
18.
“That my mom had given birth to twin boys while in college, long before meeting my dad.
The father was a professor in her department.
However, she was not keeping in touch, and her family grew increasingly suspicious.
Eventually, her sister came up unannounced.
She knocked, and my mom answered, obviously pregnant.”
“The sister went back and let the family know what she had seen.
The reason for her absence was never spoken of.
I didn’t find out until many years after her death.”
yarzospatzflute
And lastly…
19.
“About 20 years ago, I had a boyfriend who got cancer and died within a year.
Even his first name was invented; he was actually named Steve.”
“There was one true thing: his cousin who worked at NASA really did.
I guess that was already interesting enough that he didn’t have to make that up.
As to why he did this, it was never clear.
He didn’t lie about other stuff, as far as I know.
The whole thing was sad and strange.”
[deleted]
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.
