A Younger Brother
I have a close friend who is 28, with two brothers in their mid-20s and a younger brother, 15, who is unaware that he is a half-sibling. When the older siblings were in middle school, their mom left their dad and lived with another man for a year. She became pregnant, but when the man abandoned her, their father took her back, raising the 15-year-old as his own.
At the time, the older siblings were aware of the situation, given the timing. However, their parents chose to keep the truth from the youngest, hoping to avoid him feeling less loved by his father. Despite the family's secret, the older children have always known the reality of their brother's parentage.
Pick Up The Mail
When I was a child, I would often pick up the mail after school with my mother. One day, I found a note addressed to me that read, "I’ve noticed you’ve been feeling down lately. Let me cheer you up with some shopping. My love, Paul."
Before I could even process it, my mother snatched the note from my hands and muttered, "That’s not for you!" I was too young to understand what was happening. Was it a stalker, or was my mother secretly seeing someone? Years went by without any explanation, but I noticed other odd behaviors, like her hiding her phone or certain items when I walked into the room. My father had a vasectomy in 1990, so I couldn’t make sense of it all. Even after 17 years, the mystery remains unsolved.
A Hardworking Tenant
For years, it was believed that my hardworking tenant farmer grandfather never had the chance to own a farm of his own. However, as I grew older, I uncovered a much darker truth behind this story.
It turned out that my uncle, my grandfather’s son, had a severe gambling addiction and owed significant amounts of money. To protect his family, my grandfather was forced to sell his farm in order to pay off my uncle’s debts. Had he not done so, it could have cost him—and others in the family—their lives. I only learned of this painful truth after both of them had passed away.
Retiring Early
After my parents divorced, my father retired early, sold the house, and moved my grandmother to Florida. He accepted the first offer on the house quickly, and everything seemed rushed. Eighteen months later, he passed away, and it wasn’t until going through his belongings that I discovered the painful truth—his medical records revealed that he had been living with untreated pancreatic cancer, never confiding in anyone. It seemed he had simply retired, moved to a warmer place, and waited.
Years later, I had a conversation with Grandma, who shared her belief that I never truly knew my father. She felt a part of him never left Vietnam, shaped by his Marine service and the trauma of PTSD. In the end, he passed away a broken, depressed man, silently battling his illness, never telling anyone how much time he had left.
Did Not Want Children
When I first met my fiancée, I made it clear that I didn’t want children. For five years, I stuck to this belief, never imagining it would lead to the situation I’m in now.
Now, with her decision to keep the baby, I find myself overwhelmed. Her exhaustion has left her unable to help with the household or care for our child, which means I’m doing it all. She avoids waking up at night and hasn’t even attempted to help him learn to sleep without diapers. Though I love my son deeply, I often feel unprepared for this life and long for a break, hoping for a moment of peace.
A Heartbreaking Secret
When we were children, our mother revealed a heartbreaking secret to my brother and me. She had been married before meeting our dad, and at just 21 years old, she lost her husband due to the Vietnam War or another military-related incident.
The revelation left us in shock, as it meant we might not have even existed. In hindsight, I understand why she kept this part of her past hidden for so long. It also explained the strange birthday cards we received from “grandma’s neighbor,” who turned out to be the mother of the man who had passed away.
Cockroach Problem
As a child, we had an ongoing cockroach issue that lingered despite using traps and sprays around the house. Eventually, my parents decided to replace the mattress on my waterbed, so we drained it to make the change.
When my dad removed the mattress, he screamed in shock. Though I was in another room, they tried to shield me from the chaos, unaware that a roach nest had formed beneath my bed. The source of the infestation was a small leak, creating the ideal conditions for the cockroaches. I later learned that my parents quietly discussed how this explained my sleep disturbances and the nightly visits from the pests. I’ve tried not to dwell on it too much since then.
Ten Years Later
When my aunt worked as a judge, she was briefly kidnapped by criminals she had convicted. This terrifying experience was the actual reason she returned to live with us.
At the time, I was just eight years old, so everyone told me she came back because she missed the family. It wasn’t until ten years later, while reminiscing with my brother, that the truth finally came out.
Usual Argument
When I was 16, my parents had one of their usual heated arguments. Amid the tension, my dad repeatedly asked, “Why don’t you tell them?” After a lot of tears, my mom finally opened up to my siblings and me about a secret we never knew.
We had an older half-brother. When my mom was a teenager, she became pregnant and chose adoption for the baby. What shocked us most was that everyone in the family knew, except for us. Years later, I found him on MySpace, despite my mom’s wishes to leave him alone. Nervous but hopeful, I reached out, and to my relief, our reunion went smoothly. He soon became a cherished part of our family.
A Result Of An Affair
I later learned that my existence was the result of an affair, and my parents' marriages to their respective spouses ended because of it. My dad had two children with his wife, but he was unsure about divorcing her. Meanwhile, my mom lived in Detroit with her husband, where their relationship also had its struggles.
Both of my parents worked at the same place and got to know each other. After a night of heavy drinking on Valentine's Day in 1988, they conceived me. Following my conception, my mom divorced her husband and moved out. My dad, unable to return to his marriage, moved back into my grandparents' farm. When I was around two, he moved in with my mom and me, where he has stayed ever since. My birth certificate lists my mom's ex-husband as my father, leading to questions about my paternity. Despite it all, my relationship with my half-siblings is great, and while learning I was unplanned was a bit unsettling, I’ve come to terms with it.
The Donor
My cousin was adopted, but for years we kept it a secret because she didn’t know. I was talking about it with my dad one day because I couldn’t believe she didn’t know. During the conversation, he let it slip that my older sister was conceived using donor sperm. After a moment, he added that I, too, was conceived using a donor.
Our two younger siblings, however, were not and were completely unexpected. It turned out that my older sister knew, but my mom made both my sister and dad promise not to tell me. I’m not entirely sure why I wasn’t supposed to know, but they managed to keep it a secret until I was 22 years old.
Outcasts
My father’s siblings and their families don’t talk to us anymore since my grandmother’s passing. I was told that they were just too busy working and doing their own thing to hang out like we all used to. On the off chance I saw them, I would always be the first and only one to say “hi” and try to catch up. About the time I was 18, I was told the real reason they didn’t talk to us anymore.
They had turned their backs on my grandmother when she was on her last legs and about to lose her house. So, my father stepped up and tried to convince his siblings to help save the house and help with the medical bills. They turned their backs on her and my father, so my father ended up buying the house and restoring it. When my grandmother passed, my father’s siblings tried to “claim their piece of Mom’s money” even though they didn’t do anything for her when she lost her life. To this day, they refuse to associate themselves with my father, mother, sister, and me.
The Test
I learned that the grandfather I grew up with was not my biological grandfather. I found out when I was in my early thirties after he had passed. My grandmother told me the night of his wake that he never got over his anger at the Catholic Church for refusing to marry them since she had already been married once. I responded, “Wait, what?” She replied, “Oh, you didn’t know that papa wasn’t your biological grandfather? I guess you just learned something about yourself today!” But that wasn’t the only shocker. I then learned that my grandma’s first husband was also not my biological grandfather.
Turns out my mother was actually the product of an affair. I found that one out via an Ancestry.com DNA test. My biological grandfather and uncle coincidentally took the test as well and popped up as “closely related”. My new uncle then contacted me, thinking he had solved a different family mystery of his own, and I asked my mom if she knew anything about the family. When my mom asked my grandma, my grandma spilled the beans. My biological grandfather also didn’t know.
The Forgotten Daughter
My grandmother was the illegitimate daughter of a state assemblyman. I thought that was almost kind of cool until I found out that he marked her as deceased on her birth certificate. He likely never acknowledged her until her mother and sisters passed—probably in a flu epidemic—then he took her into his home. There, she worked as a maid for him, his mean wife, and their children.
She finally met my grandfather at a barn dance and was able to leave that house. She was the sweetest, most generous small-town lady out there. I would never have known she had a difficult life in her youth. She never talked about it, and I don’t think even her own children knew the whole story until she was in her nineties and genealogy became a hobby for someone in the extended family.
Abandoned
I found out that the people I thought were my parents were actually my grandparents. My birth mother—the person I was raised to believe was my eldest sister—got pregnant at 14 and had me. She wasn’t ready to raise me, so my grandparents adopted me and raised me. They're my mom and dad and always will be. I was around ten when I found out, and it all came out in the worst way. It was during a fight between my parents. There were drinks involved and a lot of shouting.
I was trying to get them to calm down when Dad let slip, “Well, why don’t you go ask your real mother?” The way he said it was filled with venom and hurt. He left my mom and me to talk about it. My mom told me the whole deal then. She mentioned that my sister wanted so little to do with me one night that she literally left me on the doorstep and walked right over me to go on a night out. Apparently, the rest of my mom’s family didn’t approve of her taking me in, so we moved across the country for a fresh start.
The Horrible Ex
I’m happy my mom’s ex is no longer alive. The dude was a menace. He frequently had outbursts where he would destroy our apartment and threaten my siblings or my mom. His family and friends all thought he was harmless but didn’t want to deal with him. One day, he was having another meltdown, and my mom and siblings were hiding in my room.
I was holding the door shut while he was trying to get in, so I called the authorities. The guy blamed me for years after that and targeted me often. One day, some neighborhood boys tried to hurt me, and when I mentioned it, he convinced himself that I must’ve led those boys on and kept inviting them over. But that wasn’t all. I also had to take care of him when he shattered the bones in his arm and hand, and traveling nurses refused to come to our house to flush his IV. I imagine he was terrible to them too.
Not A Mother Figure
I miss my mom—a lot. She is still alive but is barely in my life because she was extremely terrible for my entire childhood. I ended up moving in with my dad after she tossed me out, and I had no contact with her for about a year. I’m talking to her again because it’s easier now that she has moved to another state, but it’s not enough.
I just want her to hug me, even knowing there will be a metaphorical knife in my back if I do. I have many memories of her as a kid that were mostly bad, but there were a few that weren’t, and I miss that.
Missed Opportunities
My cousin has Asperger’s, and only my immediate family will admit it, even though it’s blindingly obvious and makes his life very difficult. He’s in his mid-20s and has dropped out of college, lived in a state-assisted apartment—which he eventually got tossed out of—and at one point moved into a trailer park with a woman at least 15 years his senior and her young daughter.
He has all the tendencies of Asperger’s and my parents, who are psychologists, realized it as well. I think his life would be a lot easier if he was able to receive treatment, as I know many people with Asperger’s can live normal lives. A few years ago, my dad attempted to tell my aunt, but she flipped out and screamed at him in total denial.
The Secret Uncle
I found out at my grandmother’s funeral that she had a brother whom no one EVER spoke to or talked about. I have a small, close-knit family, and I had never even heard he existed.
It turns out he lives in Florida and writes conspiracy theory books about reptilians/alien people in the government. There’s a published author in my family!
A Secret Life
I had an uncle who was successful. He taught industrial art design in a known school in a big city, had a nice little house downtown, and was basically the coolest, nicest guy you could ever meet. He didn’t have a mean bone in his body and was all about positivity. One day, I noticed that when his watch rode up, he had a tiny little “J” tattooed on his wrist. I asked about it, and he immediately shut down and said it was nothing before excusing himself and walking away. I was shocked since he had never been cold to me before.
I asked my mother about it, and it turned out that he was in a gang when he was younger. I guess it got a bit serious, and when one of his good friends lost his life, he got out and got serious about growing up and flying straight—which he did. He started crushing his schoolwork, dedicating himself to wood and metalworking and went on to be a success.
The Last To Know
For years, I felt like there was something I didn’t know about my family. I wasn’t sure why, I just did. I would bring it up to my mom over the years, but she’d say I was just being silly. Years later, after my cousin lost his life driving under the influence, my mom told me she had something to say.
It turned out the man I thought was my birth father wasn’t, someone else was. I was in my early 20s and took it in good stride. My dad thought I would freak out and was glad I didn’t. What did shock me was the fact that EVERYONE in my family knew—my aunts, uncles, older cousins, etc. How they hid that information so well over the years kind of freaked me out.
The Other Best Friend
I have had the same best friend since I was 16; we met in high school. When we turned 19, she met her husband. I quickly became closer to him than my best friend. We developed a deep brother-sister-type bond. My best friend had cognitive disabilities and anxiety, so I would vent to him because he was just easier to talk to. Then her husband lost his life to leukemia.
I stepped up and helped my best friend through the transition. I planned a memorial service, paid for the cremation, and was basically a rock, but I was completely gutted internally. I do not trust easily, and her husband was one of the few people I felt I could say anything to. The loss was hard for me, and I had nowhere to go with the pain because the one person I would talk to about it was him, and he was gone. It was a complicated mix to deal with.
The Streamer
My friend goes on and on about how many Twitch followers he has and how he’s getting so big as a streamer, etc. But there’s something he doesn’t know. Most of his followers/viewers are me. He was so depressed that nobody was tuning in that I used a Google Workspace account and a ton of aliases to spawn Twitch accounts to follow and watch him.
However, it’s gotten out of control, and he keeps trying to brag about how many viewers and subscribers he has. I’m not sure how to proceed because he was pretty depressed before I created all the followers, and I am worried he’ll get depressed again if I slowly stop doing it.
Happier Ever After
My dad is my mom’s second husband. The first marriage was not necessarily hidden, it has just become forgotten and was never spoken about in front of my siblings or me. When I figured it out and asked my mother, she explained that she married rather young, following the Asian tradition of arranged marriages.
Her in-laws were strict and demanding, which left her unhappy and wanting more in life than becoming a housewife. She divorced and started studying abroad, where she then met my dad. They’ve now been happily married for almost 21 years.
Years Apart
My grandfather had an affair with an English woman back in 1941, when he went to study there, and fathered a daughter with her. Unfortunately, he showed his true colors when he left them both and came back home. Eighteen years after his passing, my aunt, grandmother, and mother found out about it after my aunt saw the daughter in a picture.
They contacted her, and both parties shared their connection to my grandfather. She said he left her and the mother and didn’t even try to contact them again. It was really sad because I looked up to my grandad, and this really dampened his image in my eyes.
What Are Friends For
I hate my friends, and I think I’ve always hated some aspects of them. I’ve tried so hard to change my views and my ways because they don’t deserve that, but I can’t stand people. Their quirks and their laughs grate on my ears, and their needs are too heavy for me to want to be burdened. I find no interest in the things they like or the foods they enjoy.
The jokes they find funny seem stupid to me, and I’m exhausted from pretending to enjoy my time with them. I’m going to be moving out after being very close with all of them for the past two years, and I couldn’t be happier. I’m better off keeping this weight away from people who don’t deserve it.
The Jock
I used to fantasize about hooking up with the rich college guy who rented a room at my family’s house. He was a varsity player on my grandpa’s football college team, and his mom had moved to Australia, so he needed a place to stay.
About a year or two ago, I found out from my uncle that he moved to Australia as well, shortly after he was caught using steroids by one of my uncles.
The Runaway
My great-aunt ran away with an American serviceman back in the day. She was engaged and on a pre-marriage trip with her fiancé in Germany when she met an American and ran away with him. She left her fiancé in Germany to travel back home alone and tell her family that she had eloped. My family cut her off and never spoke to her again.
Then, when she was older, she went back home penniless, with her children staying in the US. She wanted to live with her widowed mother, who was living on a very small pension. In a mysterious turn of events, no one knows what happened to her after her mother passed. I found out about this all at a family gathering.
Beyond Terrified
My friends, roommates, and family know that I’m scared of bugs, but they don’t know that I’m downright horrified by them, to the point where it’s probably an actual phobia. A few weeks ago, a mosquito was trapped in my room for a few days. I saw it multiple times, and it would bite me in my sleep. Despite knowing better, I haven’t been able to sleep, thinking I have bed bugs which I don’t.
Even so, my reaction was over the top. I’ve been vacuuming my mattress, constantly washing my sheets, doing exhaustingly thorough inspections nonstop, and worst of all, when I’m tired, I can feel bugs crawling on me that I know aren’t there. It’s honestly been tormenting, and it’s negatively impacting my ability to function in daily life.I’m rational enough to see the evidence for myself and finally convinced myself there are no bedbugs around. I’m ashamed to share it with anyone, worrying they’d think I’m crazy when I’m definitely not. I sometimes have anxiety, and I think bugs just trigger the worst of it in me.
Obituary
When my grandpa passed, we went about the normal funeral arrangements and whatnot, including putting an obituary in the local paper. Not long after the funeral, something weird happened. There was another obituary for him in the same paper from completely different people. We were obviously confused.
I was about ten when all of this happened, but from what I remember, my grandpa had been married to another woman and had kids before he married my nana. I’m assuming she knew, but they never told my dad. His other family was upset at us for not telling them that he had passed or inviting them to the funeral, even though we didn’t know they existed!