35 upvotes, 2 direct replies (showing 2)
View submission: What's the longest unanswered question in your family's history?
DNA tests showed my brother is my half brother. Not a huge deal, because it doesn't seem our (we thought) parents were ever exclusive with each other. We mutually decided to not tell our mother what we discovered because of the high chance of there being some trauma involved. She is *not* the sort of woman to lie to make herself look better--for real, I was no more than 8 or 9 when she told me I was the result of a drunken attempt to get her ex back--so either she doesn't know or there's a very good reason she's chosen to lie about this one thing for 50+ years.
No regrets about the decision, but I'd be lying if I didn't say I was curious as all get out.
Comment by OpheliaMorningwood at 24/02/2025 at 22:44 UTC
19 upvotes, 1 direct replies
My bro and I told mom we were doing the DNA thing and she requested a meeting. We thought she was telling us she was going to sell the condo or something. She told us that my older brother was the result of a date rape in 1967. She met my father over the phone from a friend and he made her laugh while staying at a relatives home until she had and adopted out the baby. He gave her another option; they get married and raise the kid as theirs and not say shit and swear the family to silence. It worked; we figured out Santa wasn’t real but had no clue about this, took 50 years for Mom to get the guts to spill the tea.
Comment by cheap_dates at 25/02/2025 at 09:26 UTC
4 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I was the product of an affair. The man who raised me, whose name I have, talked my mother down and kept her from jumping out the window. She was married at the time but her husband was not my biological father.
When I was old enough to inquire about the circumstances of my birth, I was also old enough to let some doors remain closed. I think she carried the shame of my birth all her life.