Here’s what they had to get off their chests.
*
*Along with more answers from theoriginal Reddit thread.
But she eventually called the police, and I was brought back.
I didn’t find out for sure until a few years later."
u/Consistent_Type4270
2.
I went to visit him a few times, and he would send cards on holidays and my birthday.
My 4-year-old self thought this made sense.
After a year or so, he stopped writing, and I stopped visiting."
“I figured he didn’t have our new address after a recent move.
I finally received a call from him during my senior year of high school to reconnect.
I blew him off and never really gave it a second thought.
Turns out he’d passed.
Turns out he was released on probation EVERY time for his multiple felonies.
He served just under four.
He waited 10+ years to call.
Eventually, I was conceived.
My mother was addicted to painkillers, and after my birth, I was removed from her care.
I changed my last name to my adopted family.
I hope his grave is unmarked and covered by a pig farm.”
u/superduper
3.
“My aunt Rosa was the only sister not living in the US.
She had a child my mom’s age but no husband and was never referred to as widowed.
Back in 2009, I was visiting her and asked her why she’d never moved here.
Turns out she did in the ’50s, but her husband was an abusive drunk.
He hit her son (my cousin) when he was three and broke his nose.
That was the final straw.
u/CordCarillo
4.
“For me, it was the lawsuit against my grandpa for groping my cousin.
My parents left me alone with him after this, even though my cousin swears it happened.
u/Lexiwolf333
5.
Some seriously weird shit went down.
It wasn’t a commune; it was a cult.
I asked my mom bluntly about it a few years ago, and she agreed.”
u/Mapper9
6.
“My great-grandmother and her family were sex workers.
They also were part of a team smuggling liquor across the border into the US during prohibition.
It all made more sense to me once I grew up.”
u/Fllyder
7.
This meant we could leave an abusive household to move in with her once she was out.
I found out after I was married and moved out of state.
u/BigRedButler85
8.
“I grew up with a single mother and no contact with relatives.
We moved constantly, and she seemed to have no friends either.
That was why we constantly moved and didn’t seem to have relatives.
I am 67 now and still get flashbacks to suddenly understanding now some strange thing that happened back then.
I never know what to say when people ask why I don’t have any relatives.”
Anonymous
9.
After about fifty years, we finally found out with the passing of my mom.
My resentful aunt had a child and was forced to give it up.
My brother and I were in between the other baby.
It is so weird that my mom forgave everyone and acted like nothing was ever wrong.
I feel so sorry for my mom, who has lived with this for so long.
Even on her deathbed, she kept the secret.”
“My sister has a different dad.
We just didn’t think about it!
Yeah, she’s the only brunette in a family of blondes, but that’s my sister!
If anyone asks, my mom fell pregnant at 16, a few months before meeting my 23-year-old father.
u/stickandtired
11.
“I didn’t know my dad for close to 40 years.
His family was certainly shocked to learn about me.
I’ve never forgiven my mom for this.”
danetee_sliger
12.
“I had a great uncle on my mom’s side who I just loved.
My great-uncle died suddenly when I was eight.
I was always told it was a heart attack.
His wife, who was European, moved back to Europe but kept in touch with my grandparents.
No idea if his wife knew.”
“I found out that my great-grandmother was a mail-order bride.
I took that to mean that maybe she found a guy through a pen pal or something.
I found out later she went through a company that connected mail-order brides to single men.
Unfortunately, both her husbands were assholes.
It sounded really ugly.”
hiddencake55
14.
“My mother wasn’t my grandfather’s child.
She didn’t find out until I shared my 23andMe results with her.
If she weren’t an affair baby, I’d have been about 1/4 Italian.
Instead, I’m 1/4 Latvian and absolutely 0% Italian.
u/TheTurboDiesel
15.
“I was in a cult.
After some research (that I was told never to do!
), my suspicions were confirmed.”
“Its a huge relief because Im gay, and that wasnt allowed.”
She had a 15-year affair, and my ‘oops baby’ mother is his only legitimate child.
Granny also offed that same grandfather.
He died a couple of days later from a massive stroke.”
u/erratic_bonsai
17.
“My now-dead father-in-law had multiple affairs during his marriage to my mother-in-law.
It was a known family secret that all the men had second and even third families.
My dad was rightfully angry and confronted my grandmother about it.
So she did with her then-boss and another random man.
“My cousin who was super ill actually had a sickness that was preventable with medicine.
… [He] died because the woman my uncle married was a religious nut.
… [This was] confirmed later when I was an adult.
u/Mental-Book-1555
20.
“My dad told me this full story on a camping trip recently.
“So my grandpa went with it.
u/Many-Mongoose-3463
21.
Mom drank too much.
u/Hedgehog-Plane
22.
“My uncle was the local drug dealer.
He would give me reasonable access.
If he found out that I was using other stuff, he’d tell my parents.
u/Lozzanger
23.
“That my aunt did not die of an asthma attack in her sleep but took her own life.
She had been very depressed.
As an adult, they admitted she purposely overdosed.
u/Cabbage-floss
24.
It turns out they were all doing drugs and swinging.”
[deleted]
25.
“One of my aunts had a bad relationship with my grandpa.
I first heard this story when I was 18, about a year after Grandpa died.
I knew something fucked up had happened, but I didn’t think it was that bad.”
u/MaleficentAvocado1
26.
“My dad died of a heart attack.
His heart was bad, but he was also a functional cocaine user.
He made good money, provided for his family, and had nice cars it was somewhat unexpected.
“In reality, that last cocaine hit on Saturday constricted the artery one last time and closed it.
My mom finally admitted that, yes, he did it consistently.
u/Davina_Lexington
27.
I was told that I just heavily take after my mom’s side of the family.
Now, I don’t know if I should make a run at contact him or not.”
u/IllustriousExit5820
28.
Mom confirmed she told my grandma after the first or second time it happened, at seven years old.
I don’t talk to her anymore.”
