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Family Secrets That Almost Destroyed Lives

Every family has secrets. Don’t believe us? Did your parents ever tell you a jolly man in a red suit left presents under your Christmas tree, a giant bunny hid eggs for you to find or a magic fairy took your lost teeth and replaced them with money under your pillow? 

If you answered, “yes,” then your family kept secrets from you. Of course, these are minor examples, used by billions of parents worldwide. 

The family secrets you’re about to read are much more traumatic, painful, gut-wrenching and shocking than finding out Santa Claus is actually dear ol’ dad. 

Keep in mind, with these stories come some trigger warnings. 

1. Let’s Hope They Really Are “Just Friends”

“My dad’s biological father is his adopted father’s brother (so, his uncle). His bio dad and his girlfriend were both underage, and she ended up having a kid. In order to keep it hush-hush, she had the kid and gave it to her boyfriend’s brother, who was of age and married. 

My dad doesn’t know this. 

As well, my sister is only my half-sister. My parents were swingers and my mom got pregnant when they were trying for a baby, but somehow she got pregnant by someone else instead, and my dad is somewhat aware? But the real father doesn’t know this, nor does my sister. 

It gets even crazier, they lost all contact with the guy, but my sister turned 20 and moved out to go live with her husband in a new state, and she got a job and moved around within the company, and becomes great friends outside of work with her boss, WHO JUST SO HAPPENS TO BE HER BIO DAD.”

NinjaClam

(JumpStory)

2. That’s a Titanic Twist of Fate

“My Welsh great-grandmother had passage booked on the Titanic in 1912. She ended up not going because she ‘fell ill.’ Turns out, it was actually an out-of-wedlock pregnancy that gave her such bad morning sickness, she couldn’t go. She lost the baby. 

She came the following year in 1913 and met my great-grandfather. She only told my mom (who she helped raise during the summers) who then told me.

Great-grandma getting knocked up saved an entire branch of our family tree!”

sassy_steph_

(Unsplash)

3. Sounds Like Great-Grandma Was in on It

“My great-great-grandfather moved from Romania to America and got married to another Romanian immigrant shortly after he arrived. Once they married he insisted they start using ‘American’ names, only speak English in public, never return to Romania, and refrain from communicating with family in the old country.

When my great-grandmother (his daughter) was a teenager, it was discovered by the rest of the family that he actually abandoned his first wife and three children in Romania and left them in extreme poverty when he came to the states and married my great-great-grandmother.

Ya know, real upstanding guy…

Another interesting tidbit, my great-grandmother went on to apparently become a matchmaker through her Orthodox church by helping families with young women relatives still in Romania connect with families with young men here in the US to pretty much arrange marriages so they could come state-side.”

SilentBlizzard1

(Pexels)

4. Anyone Else Feel Bad for Grandma?

“My great grandma told my grandpa that the Jewish girl he liked was taken to a concentration camp when in truth they fled (it is said she knew they were safe). 

Grandpa meets my Grandma shortly after, they get married but apparently, he still talked about the other girl from time to time and that she was the one who got away and how awful it all was. 

Many years go by, my aunt and dad are born. Grandpa walks around town and meets the girl from back then, is totally shocked and finds out he has been lied to all this time. 

Grandpa got sick pretty soon after that and died when my dad was only 5 years old. My grandma later once said she believes he died of a broken heart.”

Aur3lya_175

(Pexels)

5. That’s an Odd Thing to Keep a Secret

“My grandmother immigrated to North America from Europe in 1970 and did not leave Canada until her death in 2017. Until the day she died, everyone who knew her family or otherwise knew that she did not speak English. Only her mother tongue. She couldn’t read, write or drive, and she didn’t get out much. The majority of her life was spent indoors taking care of us grandkids before and after school and church (mass in her language).

When she suffered a fall in 2007, she was hospitalized for a short time and given pain medication. My mother was with her in the hospital and left the room for a few minutes to grab a cup of coffee. When she came back, my drugged-up Grandma was having an entire conversation in English with one of the medical staff. Perfectly fluent. I’m the only family member that knows other than my Mom. The medical staff found it hilarious though.

As soon as she’s sobered up from the pain meds, she up and down denied that ever happened and stuck to that story for the next decade.”

FlashingAppleby

(Pexels)

6. The Truth Always Comes Out in the End

“I always wondered why my grandmother hated my aunt (her older sister). She was a die-hard Christian woman who even owned a church with her husband. My aunt did a lot for my grandma while she was deathly sick, so when she told me she didn’t want my aunt anywhere near her deathbed or at her funeral, it confused me. I asked why, but she just made it known very firmly she didn’t want her around.

My grandma raised me, we were best friends and I was the first and the favorite grandchild (she always told me not to tell anyone, that it was our little secret cause it would hurt all the other grandkids’ feelings). My cousins even all told me after she died they all knew I was the favorite because of the unbreakable bond we had. So when family started coming up to me asking why my aunt wasn’t allowed near her deathbed or at her funeral I said I didn’t really know, I just knew I would make sure her last wishes were fulfilled.

My first job ever in high school, my boss was my grandma’s best friend from middle school through high school. They had a falling out because my grandma went down the wrong path shortly after high school, and just never got back in touch again except for the occasional hello in CVS. We crossed paths not too long ago, exchanged our memories of my grandma and talked about what I’m doing these days. She then asked, ‘How were you able to keep a straight face around your aunt after all the fake Facebook posts she put up about your grandma after what she did?’

The friend went on to tell me that my aunt traumatized my grandma repeatedly when they were younger. My aunt was a few years older and would have her way with my grandma. She also allowed her boyfriends to have their way with her too.  

I will never tell a soul (except all of Reddit). I know that if this would come out now it would cause a war in that little town because my aunt is a very respected woman. She knows what she did, and she will have to live with it knowing it still traumatized her sister until the day she died. I know she will go to her deathbed with that and it will always be in the back of her mind how she ruined her sister’s whole life. I imagine my grandma haunting her and I smile. I hope my grandma finally got the peace that she has always deserved.”

Red_lioness420

(JumpStory)

7. He Was Working on More Than the Railroad

“I had an uncle who was a railroad engineer and worked the Terre Haute, Indiana to Danville, Illinois line. Never took a day off from his one day there, one day back route. 

At his funeral (I was a kid and didn’t go), a strange woman came into the funeral home with some older children. No one knew who she was and finally, my grandma introduced herself to the woman and asked who she was. 

The woman said, ‘I’m Mrs. So-and-So I’m here for my husband’s funeral.’

Turns out my uncle had two families, one in Terre Haute and one in Danville. I didn’t find out about this until I was an adult. My mom, grandma, aunt and sister kept this a secret for decades.”

mildlysceptical22

(JumpStory)

8. The Whole Family Was in on the Scam

“My grandfather passed when I was 17. The part I am not supposed to know, which my mom—who has never been able to keep a secret in her life—told me, was that he didn’t pass of natural causes.

He waited until his social security check arrived for my grandmother to cash, and then took a bottle of pills and drank a bottle of booze. My grandmother found him like that and then called my mom to come over and help her put him into bed so that she could tell everyone he passed in his sleep.

He was old, therefore no one did an autopsy or anything.”

smartypants333

(Pexels)

9. Toddlers Aren’t Test Dummies 

“I was used as a test dummy to see if my uncle acted inappropriately with children. My family was suspicious, but instead of doing anything responsible, they decided to set me up as bait. I was only a toddler, so they figured since I couldn’t remember, it wouldn’t matter.

They had him babysit me for a couple of hours and recorded it. I was never supposed to know, but one day, my aunt spilled the beans to me by accident.”

Permalink

(Pexels)

10. No Luck of the Irish Here…

“This is pretty mild, but a part of my mom’s side is very, very convinced they’re Irish. In all the American, ‘Kiss me I’m Irish’ ways. My grandparents took a trip there. They spent a lot of time at a local pub, getting to know Irish singers and poets, my cousins have very Irish names, etc., etc., etc.

I took a few ancestry tests to nail down the rest of my mom’s side–not a single percent Irish in any of them. 

The family name, common in Irish-Americans, is actually a Swiss surname that got translated at some point, according to the genealogy trace I also had done. 

My now-deceased grandparents want their ashes spread into the Irish sea and my mom and her siblings are planning a big trip to do it. I’m taking the secret to my grave.”

LaLucertola

(Pexels)

11. That’s One Brave Mama!

“The night my dad ‘came home early from work and accidentally set the alarm off,’ my house was actually being broken into.  My mother confronted the intruder while my father rushed home.

She put my siblings and me in the room with our older brother and told us she just wanted to make sure none of us were startled if the authorities were automatically called but to absolutely not leave the room.”

ZebraPrintedRose

(Public Domain)

12. Did She Work for the CIA?

“My great-grandma had dementia in her last years of life and completely forgot English. She would mumble and confess things in German, and eventually, my grandma and I learned some really dark stuff about her.

It took a lot of time and a German-to-English dictionary to decipher what she was saying. We found out that her oldest son’s father lost his life during the battle of Stalingrad while she was pregnant with him. This was her first husband, and he passed in September 1942.

She then married his brother after giving birth to her first son. She soon became pregnant with her second child, a daughter. When husband number two went to fight for the Gestapo, he lost his life during the battle of Kursk in July of 1943.

Great-grandma then gave birth to her daughter and married her third husband—husband number one and number two’s cousin. She and her third husband were expecting child number three—my grandmother—when he went to fight in the battle of Hurtgen Forest.

He passed in November of 1944 and was her favorite husband, apparently. At that point, there were no men in the area who would marry her, as she was considered cursed.

With three children under the age of four in tow, my great-grandma managed to sneak into the United States, specifically Los Angeles, during the last few months of WWII. She never gave us complete details, but we figured she probably bribed, slept with, and somehow wormed her way out of all that nonsense.

Upon coming to the US in 1945, she married the man my grandma and her siblings thought was their dad. But this was no fairy tale either. It turned out he was not interested in women and paid my great-grandma to be his beard. He passed of congestive heart failure in 1960, and my great-grandma never remarried.

Somehow my grandma, great aunt, and great uncle all have birth certificates stating they were born in the United States and that husband number four was their father. We have no clue how great-grandma pulled that one off.”

mcfly82388

(Pexels)

13. Family Is Everything

“My older brother might only be my half-brother. About ten or so years ago, I went out drinking with my dad for his birthday. He got hammered and told me that when he and my mom first got together, she was still in a relationship with a really terrible guy.

She got pregnant around the time that she left him, so there’s about a 50/50 chance that my older brother is the other guy’s biological son. I asked him if he had ever thought about getting tested to find out and he said, ‘No. I don’t care what any test says. That is MY son.’

He also got emotional at one point and told me he really regretted talking me out of going to school for what I originally wanted to do in favor of what I do now. Later on, he punched the glass out of a jukebox because he thought it would be funny. The whole night was a roller coaster.

The next day, he seemed to have no recollection of telling me that shocker about my brother, and I never brought it up again. I’ll never tell my brother, and I’ll never tell my parents that I know about it. As a side note, it would explain a lot. My brother and I don’t even look related.

We always just shrugged our shoulders whenever friends asked us how we could be siblings when we looked so different. I feel the same way my dad does; he’s my brother, not half-brother, no matter what any test might say. I’m at peace with the fact that I’ll never really know for sure.”

Cheese_Pancakes

(Hippopx)

14. Dad’s “Investment Property”

“My dad has cheated on my mom with several different women over the years. They stayed married, as divorce was looked down upon in our culture. But the affair was actually crazy.

He would literally fly to a different part of the country ‘to see his investment property’ every now and then, in reality, he was going to see his old secretary who lived in that house.

He built a house, and because she was struggling to get by financially, he ‘felt bad’ and offered to let her live in it with her two kids from a different marriage. So, his secretary, who used to work for him, lived in one of his houses rent-free. That was the reality.

Then one day, when he was sloshed, he told me that when he passes, his will has the house split 50/50 between that lady and me. I didn’t even know how to react or respond other than realizing I would need a lawyer in the future as she and I don’t get along.”

LifeWithPain2079

(JumpStory)

15. The Ultimate Secret-Keeper

“I was the sole winner of a major lottery and never told a soul. I lived somewhere where you could stay anonymous after a win, so I did. 

Nobody in my family knows. I didn’t change my lifestyle or anything. I kept the same cars, bikes, etc. I just make sure my family is taken care of, especially my son.

They just think I’m good at business and investing. I keep multiple brokerages for different asset classes and just show them the small accounts if needed. 

I celebrate Christmas by donating to charities and hope to build a new school.”

MercedesSLR722

(Public Domain)

16. That Poor Man…

“My mom lied to a man and told him that I was his son. She frequently coerced money from him by telling him she needed it to raise me. I found out when he showed up with gifts shortly after I had moved out on my own. He had hired a private investigator to find me after my mom refused to give him my contact info.

He apologized for not being in my life and cried while telling me he was losing his life to pancreatic cancer and that he didn’t want to go without meeting me. I asked my mom about it, and she told me she told him that so she could get money for illicit substances after she left my dad.

DNA tests confirmed that he was not my father; I tested myself against the man I knew to be my biological dad. I only ever met this man that one time. I took the gifts because it was such a surreal experience, and I didn’t know how to tell him anything other than that I forgave him.

My mom is the only other person who knew this happened.”

Brilliant_Succotash1

(Pexels)

17. Ouch

“My cousin was born handicapped because my uncle beat his wife throughout her pregnancy.

I was not aware of my uncle being a wife-beater.

I realized years after her birth her handicap was not ‘biological.’ And that my aunt had no fertility issues; she had miscarriages because of him.

My mother hid this from me knowing that I would never talk again to my uncle and tell the truth to the whole family.”

Responsible-Net-4069

(Canva)

18. Umm, Wow

“My dad had an affair with my mom’s childhood best friend. My mom knew about it, they had worked through it, and later had me. But there was something she didn’t know.

Apparently, I also have a half-sibling that was placed for adoption. It is possible my father doesn’t know either. The half-sibling found me on Ancestry dot com. 

A few quick medical history exchanges and that was that. There was no further contact requested. I respect their position and plan to never tell my parents.”

brandywhine8998

(Pexels)

19. Dang, Granny! 

“My grandma burned down the family home back in the 80s because my grandpa was a lush and a cheater. He sobered up and never cheated again. The few times the situation was talked about, my family said that it was supposedly an electrical fire. 

However, I heard them arguing one night when I was a kid.

My grandmother yelled, ‘I’ll burn this house down too.’ My grandma is a savage.”

Icy_Garbage9503

(Pexels)

20. “Fifty Shades of Grey Matter” 

“One of my mom’s cousins was committed to an asylum and sterilized. As a kid, I was told it was because she had some type of genetic malformity that her mother couldn’t take care of her. 

As an adult, I discovered the real reason, and it’s so much more sad. 

Her mother walked into her college apartment to find her experimenting as adults do with each other (she was on a leash). That was all it took for her mother to completely destroy her future. 

I’ve never even met her or know what her face looks like but I truly feel for her.”

Raincore888

(Public Domain)

21. Truly Awful 

“A great aunt on my mom’s side supposedly passed from an unknown illness at age 25. I found her death certificate—and the cause of her demise made my blood run cold.

It listed ‘the ingestion of kerosene’ as the cause. I learned from an older relative that this aunt had discovered she was pregnant and didn’t want to be. She was a very vain person and was afraid the pregnancy would ruin her body and her looks.

She had heard from some idiot that drinking kerosene would cause her to lose the baby, so that’s what she did.”

Etxguy

22. At Least There Was Some Respect Shown to His Family

“A cousin of mine died in a motorcycle accident. Loving dad of two. I was asked to hack his computer because his grieving widow could not access pictures and e-mail. 

I found a secret e-mail account through which he was messaging his mistress. This was 5 days after his death and his inbox was filled with ‘Are you ok? What is going on?’ messages. 

She was unaware of his death. So I wrote her an e-mail explaining with a link to the obituary and newspaper article.

She came to the funeral but didn’t say anything. Introduced herself as a co-worker. I removed all evidence from the computer before giving it back to the widow to preserve the memory of this guy to his wife and kids.”

NocturnalCoder

(Pexels)

23. Love Knows No Borders

“Before my maternal grandfather died, he told me that he had fallen in love with a woman in Morocco while he was stationed there.

He considered going AWOL so that he could stay with her, but the threat of being thrown in military prison persuaded him to come home.

So, I’m apparently the only person in my family aware that he had an affair while overseas.

That weighs heavily upon me at times. 

I guess I may have some family somewhere in Morocco.”

sheldonowns

(Pexels)

24. Maybe One Day…

“My Dad had a daughter before I was born and never admitted it to anyone in the family. He was basically on his deathbed when he admitted it to me. 

I was able to track down my half-sister a few years back and we were to meet but she was very emotional about the whole thing and she backed out at the last minute. 

I have since left her alone.”

Hamfiter

(Canva)

25. Sounds Like a Matt Damon Movie

“My grandfather owned a B-25 bomber and bombed Haiti in 1968. 

The CIA hired him and was supposed to bomb the Head of State’s house. The only problem was he missed and dropped the bombs on the HoS’s parent’s house. 

Also, he proceeded to land, rob multiple banks and flew back to turn in the money near Ft. Lauderdale, which at the time only amounted to 8K.”

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(Public Domain)

26. Who’s Cleaning the Fan?

“My great-uncle essentially ran a secret society in my hometown for many years with his ‘friends’ and even some of my family members. They would screw over a lot of people and run away with the money they managed to make. 

This went on for many years until the government came looking for money that he owed when he took out a loan to build a massive bar & grill. And from there the whole thing came crashing down.

To add insult to injury, my grandfather (his brother) was acting mayor at the time and had no knowledge of this, so to say ‘crap hit the fan’ would be the understatement of the century…”

Phant0m640

(JumpStory)

27. Sounds Like a Solid Guy

“My great-grandpa isn’t related to us. He met my great-grandma when she was a teen. 

She had been taken advantage of by a traveling salesman and became pregnant. As a result, her family tossed her out. My great-grandpa couldn’t have kids due to his being tormented in a Japanese prison camp during WWII.

He married my great-grandmother and raised my grandma as his own. My great-grandma told me when she had dementia and forgot it was a secret. After I found out, I asked their daughter—my grandma—and she confirmed that she had known this to be true since she was a young adult.

Even though my great-grandpa wasn’t blood, he was the bedrock of our family.”

TanichcaF

(JumpStory)

28. Granny Had a Big Heart

“My Dad had a ‘kid sister.’ She lived with and took care of my grandmother until her passing. 

I found out many, many years later that she was actually the child of my grandfather and a young woman he’d met at a bar. Said young woman later married my uncle—gotta keep it in the family I guess and rehabilitated her image by becoming a church lady. 

It made me respect my grandmother so much more. My grandfather left her (probably back in the 40s) alone with six children, yet she took in his ‘love child’ and raised and loved her as her own.”

phussann

(Canva)

29. So, Who Should Star in This Movie?

“Nobody had the details right, but my paternal great-grandfather took the life of the son of an officer in St. Louis in 1901 when he was just 17 years old. He ran away from home, ended up in Omaha, and changed his last name.

I ended up confirming all of this using Ancestry dot com and Newspapers dot com. They called it an accident, but he and his brother were troublemakers. Not only that, but street gangs were in abundance in 1901 in St. Louis, one of which went after enforcement officers and their families.

There were a number of articles telling what had happened. He also lied and told family members that he was an officer. He never was; he was a security guard for a produce company. 

Furthermore, his mom more than likely had an affair with a neighbor boy, making my great-grandfather ‘illegitimate.’

Using census records from 1880, I was able to come to this possible conclusion. It’s all a mess, but I’m determined to get to the bottom of it.”

Permalink

(Jumpstory)

30. He Didn’t Want to Play the Victim

“My grandpa didn’t want any of his grandchildren to know that he was behind bars for three or four years for fraud. The thing is, he was also a victim of the same. The guy he was doing business with used checks without funds and put all the machines in my grandpa’s name.

The other guy left no trace of his actions in the whole business, so then the entire mess fell on my grandpa. He didn’t want us to know because he didn’t want us to be aware that he had been locked up. He thought it would ruin the image we would have about him, even though he was innocent.

Even after knowing that postmortem, we still love him as much as we always did.”

CompletoSinMayo

(Pexels)

31. Cross-Country Cousins

“My Uncle was married like eight times and had two kids. Until we found out after he passed away that apparently he had like seven kids from different relationships we didn’t know about. 

He was a truck driver in the 90s. He drove all over the US. He had affairs with different women in other states. We found out about the other kids from Ancestry.com. I have met a couple of them.”

Content_Pool_1391

(JumpStory)

32. Should Have Told His Wife Anyway

“Someone in my family tried to sleep with a friend of mine. He groped her and after she went home, he kept calling her to ask if he could swing by. He is married and has two kids. No one knows except the friend, me and, of course, him.

I confronted him a few days later. I was pretty young and he’s 10 years older. It’s a messed up situation to be in at that age. 

He was crying and asking me to keep it a secret. I told him he was a major jerk and needed to apologize to my friend for putting her in that situation and iif I ever saw him in such a situation again, I’d throw him under the bus by telling his wife.”

Permalink

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33. This Sounds Like It’s an Open Secret

“My grandfather bought my grandmother from her mom. She escaped once and my great-grandmother came back to live with them to ensure she never escaped again. 

My grandfather was 30 years older than her and this happened when she was around 16. He had a whole other family living in a different country.”

AnarcoDomiQueer

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34. That’s a Lot of Family Trauma

“My maternal great-grandmother attempted to take my grandfather’s life shortly after he was born. She was committed to a state asylum for the rest of her life. 

My grandfather was given up by his father and sent to live in a boys’ home and was told his mother died in child birth. 

I discovered all of this while working on family genealogy. I was able to get my great-grandmother’s admission records and she was diagnosed a paranoid schizophrenic, I can’t even imagine the life she lived in an institution in the 1930s-1950s. 

Also, my maternal grandfather was secretly married and had a daughter before he married my grandmother. I only found this out after a 23andme DNA test matched me with my cousin, and we found their marriage records. 

Sadly, my mother never got to meet her sister since she passed several years prior to this discovery.”

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(Public Domain)

35. It’s Like a Sad Game of Telephone

“My cousin passed away when I was ten. I was told he was murdered. My brother slipped and told me when I was 14 that he actually took his own life.

I accidentally spilled the beans–not once but twice–to two cousins (they were brothers and I assumed the one told the other). They were in their 30s and had been lied to for 20 years.”

Unoriginal920

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36. Maybe Try Reaching Out…or Anything?!

“My aunt and uncle took my cousin out of high school and kept him at home for the rest of their lives is because he was a paranoid schizophrenic. He used to have violent episodes and hallucinations. They were ashamed of him, and never spoke about it to anyone. I didn’t find out until I was in my 30s.

I haven’t seen him since I was 15. I’m not sure if he’s even alive; his entire family passed away. I’m guessing he’s had to live in an institution for a long time. What a horrible way to exist.”

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37. Conspiracy Theory With Merit

“My maternal great-uncle worked for the Canadian department of defense during the cold war and died of a ‘heart attack’ while stationed in Germany. When my mom told me this, I pointed out that it was very possible that he was assassinated because it actually isn’t that hard to make it look like someone died of a heart attack. 

My mom dismissed it pretty quick though. My grandmother was a nurse at the time and went to ID the body of her BIL because her sister didn’t have the strength to. In private I brought up my theory and asked her what she thought. She didn’t say anything, just nodded, but she gave me this really knowing look. 

His death isn’t really talked about in the family, but I found out at my grandfather’s memorial that I’m the only one, besides my grandmother, who knows.”

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38. This Doesn’t Sound Legal

“My aunt and uncle couldn’t have children so they had a friend give them her child. They paid the doctors on the spot to change the names of the parents on the birth certificate so that he would be their child legally without having to go through adoption. 

It was like he was born to my aunt and uncle, even though he wasn’t.”

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39. Granny Hid That Secret for Decades

“My grandmother on my dad’s side got pregnant at 15 before my dad was born. She decided not to endure the pregnancy and went to one of those back-alley clinics because my great-grandfather would have made her keep it for sure. 

She told me when she got REALLY tipsy a few years back. My aunt and I are the only ones that know; even my dad doesn’t.”

DarkAmaterasu58

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40. Definitely Don’t Want to Picture It

“My step-father’s great-grandfather/uncles were part of the Gestapo and escaped Germany to the US before the end of World War II. 

The black-and-white photo album of them together in their SS uniforms, with many pages of photos from around Germany and France, was found after the death of one of my great-uncles.

One of my aunts was mortified, snatched the album, and now no one will talk about it.”

NoodlesSpicyHot

(Pexels)

41. They Missed Out on a Lot of Time

“My mom was always told her granddad died in the war from a head injury (WWII). Jump to the 2010s and she does some geneology only to discover he didn’t pass away then. He had been discharged from the military due to mental illness (psychosis of some kind) and mom’s granny was so ashamed she had him placed in a sanitorium where he lived unvisited and ignored until his death in the 90s.

Her mom (my grandmother) didn’t know her dad was still alive either. My mom was so angry to find out she could have visited her granddad well into her 20s if she’d known about him.”

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(Pexels)

42. Little Orphan Grannie

“My grandma was raised in a Catholic orphanage under the pretext that she lost both her parents and siblings during the Spanish Influenza. 

Turns out, her dad survived, but didn’t want to take care of her so he left her at an orphanage in Brooklyn and moved to Europe and started a new family.”

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(Public Domain)

43. They Prove It’s Not About the Ring

“My grandmother’s wedding ring is fake. 

My grandparents are very religious and have been married for almost 60 years. They told me last year that when they got married they didn’t think it was actually going to work out so they didn’t spend money on a real ring. 

I don’t know why they told me or if anyone else knows.”

HesAncientHesUgly

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44. She Solved the Case

“It always was weird to me how my ex’s parents had such a happy-looking but underneath extremely resentful marriage. 

My ex mentioned several times how sad it makes him that his dad did things that were always to the detriment of his mother. It was painful for my ex to watch. 

His dad would drive hundreds of kilometers and move mountains for his children. Well, for his sister, at least. For my ex, I am not so sure. 

It dawned on me that he does these things on purpose and sabotages the happiness of his wife. I just could not figure out why.

I also always found it weird how everyone in the family looked like they are related. Only my ex did not with his thick head and his cricked tooth.

One day, he spoke about his godfather. After his wife–the best friend of his mother–passed away, he decided to move to Canada and live in solitude. My ex spoke very highly of him; how they have such a good relationship and so on.

Then he sent me a picture and it suddenly all made sense… The same thick head, the same forehead with the same type of wrinkles, the same eye shape, the same chin… and the same cricked tooth.

To this day I am 100% convinced the godfather is my ex’s real father. And they probably all know. Except my ex and his sister.”

Blondisgift

(Pexels)

45. The Ultimate Sacrifice

“My parents divorced in the mid-60s when I was four years old. Being a broke, single, 26-year-old woman with four children and no family support, my mother married a disturbed, insecure man, most likely out of desperation. It was a terrible mistake.

For the next four and a half years, he terrorized my mother, myself and my siblings. He was particularly terrible to me as I was my mother’s favorite. I was given punishments that were impossible to complete and led to further punishment, physical and emotional torment.

I feared for my life 24/7 as there was no rhyme or reason as to when his explosive anger would erupt. One day my mother went missing. A half-hearted search found nothing and we were told that she had run away and that if we were good, she might return.

A week or two after her disappearance, my stepfather promptly forged her signature on a second mortgage on the house my grandparents had given my mother, took the money to buy a landscaping business, and went on to destroy several more families. Two years later, my mother’s jawbone was discovered.

We weren’t told that our mother was gone until about a year later when my sister confronted our biological father, and he reluctantly admitted it to us. He told my sister, who was about 12 years old at the time, ‘Don’t tell your brothers and sister.’

My brother had several volumes of jaw-dropping evidence that would shock any logical person to conclude that my stepfather offed my mother and buried her in the woods by our house. 

The official report concluded she took her own life, even without a body being found. But when her jawbone was discovered, it was determined she had been buried.

Tucked inside all this incriminating evidence was a statement from a neighbor saying she saw our mother walking into the woods on the day of her disappearance. I believe that it’s very possible my mother took her life so that our biological father would be forced to take us back.

Perhaps for her, this intervention was the only way she thought possible to keep our stepfather from inevitably harming me any further. This is something I cannot share with my siblings as it would destroy their long-held beliefs about what happened to our mother.”

Academic-Tiger7167

(Pexels)

46. That’s a Heavy Burden to Bear

“My paternal grandmother hated my mother. 

One day, she called my mom and asked her to come over and pick up a casserole my grandma had made for us. When she got there, my grandmother had shot herself and left a note saying (among other things) that she wanted my mom to find her that way. 

She was, shall we say, a messed up lady and one of the meanest people I’ve ever known. My mom didn’t want people to know b/c she didn’t want that kind of attention. My dad didn’t want people to know because he didn’t want to give my grandma any level of satisfaction. 

So, it’s just me, my parents and maybe one other person who knows. Everyone else thinks she was just an old lady who was depressed about her recently deceased husband.”

haroldtitus425

47. Red Flag Alert

“My sister slept with my best friend’s dad in our house. My dad walked in on them and flipped out. All the adults tried to hide it, but I eventually figured it out.

Younger me blamed my sister for causing all the rifts. But older me knows it was my best friend’s dad who was a total creep. 

He did end up cheating again and got some other young girl pregnant. His wife, who was SUPER religious, had the side piece move in and helped raise the kid. It was an odd situation for sure.”

OddCollege9491

(Pexels)

48. That’s a Tough Pill to Swallow

“My mom lied about how my dad passed away. My brother and I were told he lost his battle with cancer. He wrote us each a googdbye letter and I still have mine. 

When I turned 18, the truth came out. He took his own life after taking the lives of his wife and her lover (who was also his psychiatrist). 

Turned out his wife was cheating on him with his doctor and while my dad had some psychological issues the doctor purposely prescribed him medication that worsened his paranoia. 

When he found all the evidence, his already-broken mind completely snapped. He planned their demise and he wrote us all goodbyes first.”

Kkarotcake

49. His Initital Intentions Were Good

“My dad hocked my mom’s engagement ring in order to get us kids presents for Christmas one year. 

My mom thinks that my cousin took the ring and has blamed her for it for 30 years. My dad confessed what he did to me when he was tipsy at the family campout years ago, about four months before he passed.”

WarningImBroken

(Pexels)

50. Not a Hero

“My grandfather was a Montfort Point Marine. He fought in WWII when they allowed integration. He was in the Korean War as well. He was one of only two gunnery sergeants to make it from his platoon in the Chosin Resevoir. He literally survived by pulling his partner’s body on top of himself to keep shooting. The Netflix doc “The Chosen Frozen” was about him and his comrades. 

He lived to be 98, passing away in 2007. He was buried with high honors in Quantico MB National Cemetery. However…he was a prolific child abuser and my big brother is actually my uncle. 

My grandmother adopted him and an ‘aunt’ was actually his child from his wife’s baby sister. My mother and aunts are extremely mentally and emotionally disordered as a result. They all led very difficult and abusive lives and continued to spread generational trauma to their own kids. 

My adult kid brother got a really nice tattoo of “Chosen Frozen” on his forearm in honor of our grandfather’s military history…Beautiful work…But I will NEVER tell him the truth.”

mopacalypsenow

(JumpStory)
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