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Speaker 1: Family Secrets is a production of I Heart Radio High

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Speaker 1: Family Secrets. Family. It's Danny and we're back with an

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Speaker 1: episode of listener messages. Our mailbox has been rimming with

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Speaker 1: your amazing stories, so we're going to start dropping these

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Speaker 1: in from time to time as we continue to be

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Speaker 1: hard at work creating Season four of Family Secrets with

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Speaker 1: an amazing lineup of guests, launching in early October. I

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Speaker 1: know it's a long time to wait, and I know

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Speaker 1: we could all use the distraction, but good things take time,

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Speaker 1: and I promise it'll be worth it. In the meantime,

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Speaker 1: we're trying to bring you as much great bonus content

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Speaker 1: as we can, and to that end, here are some

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Speaker 1: stories recorded by you. Are wonderful, devoted listeners. I'm honored

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Speaker 1: and grateful that you're part of my world. Hi, Um,

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Speaker 1: I thought I wouldn't leave my story. I became pregnant

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Speaker 1: at fourteen and a half while I was living overseas.

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Speaker 1: My dad was in the military, and this was my

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Speaker 1: first time having sex, and the boy that was that

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Speaker 1: I knew was the father was also a visiting person

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Speaker 1: from another country. We moved back to the States in

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Speaker 1: nineteen seventy six. I didn't tell my parents. Um, as

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Speaker 1: I got more in showing everybody around me knew my friends,

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Speaker 1: my parents friends, but nobody ever talked about it. Told

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Speaker 1: Denial Um and then somebody, an adult, told me if

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Speaker 1: I didn't tell my parents, they were going to tell them.

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Speaker 1: So I told them, and within a couple of weeks,

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Speaker 1: Um I went into labor and the baby was taken away,

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Speaker 1: given to Catholic charities on the premises she had to

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Speaker 1: be raised Jewish. Fast forward to two thousand seventeen. My mom,

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Speaker 1: of all people, wants to do a twenty three in me,

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Speaker 1: so she's given one by my dad for her birthday

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Speaker 1: and my husband tells me, you know this is going

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Speaker 1: to open up a whole can of worms. I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um.

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Speaker 1: I get a call for my brother one day while

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Speaker 1: I was at work and he never called me at work,

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Speaker 1: telling me that he really needed to talk to me,

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Speaker 1: and I already knew what it was about. So fast

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Speaker 1: forward from that three years ago. I have a lovely

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Speaker 1: relationship with my biological daughter. She had a pretty happy childhood.

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Speaker 1: Her biological father never knew about her and found out

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Speaker 1: and was ecstatic. He is married. Never was not able

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Speaker 1: to have children. So it all worked out in the end. Um,

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Speaker 1: I had to tell my own daughters who didn't know.

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Speaker 1: Nobody really, my current friends didn't know because I was ashamed.

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Speaker 1: But I'm so happy it's out in the open now.

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Speaker 1: I am first telling me say thank you so much

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Speaker 1: for just creating a platform where you don't feel alone

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Speaker 1: on an island when it comes to um knowing secrets

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Speaker 1: or or have been brave enough to tell your secret.

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Speaker 1: So I thank you so much for that. Um, this

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Speaker 1: is double. This is a double mission. The first one

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Speaker 1: is I have three donor conceived children, me and my wife,

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Speaker 1: and you give me confirmation that it's okay to tell

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Speaker 1: them at a young age who they are, where they

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Speaker 1: come from, and you know, to go out and seek

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Speaker 1: that information, which leads me into the second mission. The

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Speaker 1: second one is family history. So I am a life

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Speaker 1: skinned African American woman. There's normally this African American myth

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Speaker 1: that you know, like if you look a certain way,

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Speaker 1: you are you know, related to a Native American person.

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Speaker 1: And most times that is not room And I had

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Speaker 1: to break that down to my mother. The secret was that, UM,

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Speaker 1: she always assumed that we were Native American through this

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Speaker 1: last name that sALS Native American is not um, It's

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Speaker 1: actually German and Swedish. And so I found out through

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Speaker 1: ancestry DNA and tracing my roots that my um fourth

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Speaker 1: great grandfather was a slave. He was will to a grandson.

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Speaker 1: So the new grandson was actually the father of my

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Speaker 1: great great grandmother. So I had to share that secret

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Speaker 1: with my mother and let her know that we are

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Speaker 1: not at Native Americans. There's no Native Americans in our DNA,

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Speaker 1: and this is that to our story. I feel good

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Speaker 1: because I know that there's a woman that was spoken for,

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Speaker 1: even when a whole entire family wanted to hide that fact. Hi.

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Speaker 1: I was fifteen years old when I was looking through

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Speaker 1: a drawer filled with items of my deceased father. He

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Speaker 1: had died when I was six, and I always went

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Speaker 1: through the store, you know, smelling his watch or holding

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Speaker 1: his watch, and just picking up little odds and end

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Speaker 1: to feel closer to him. That year, though, my hand

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Speaker 1: went across something very slick, and I reached in and

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Speaker 1: found a laminated used super article. My mom had recently

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Speaker 1: become a teacher and had started laminating everything in our

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Speaker 1: house the plusterity, so that's why I found it this time,

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Speaker 1: and the article said, the headline of it said, how

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Speaker 1: can I deny guilt from a young girl? Wide? And

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Speaker 1: as I read the story, I realized it's a story

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Speaker 1: about my father going to prison for involuntary manslaughter. He

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Speaker 1: was coming home from work um and had had one drink,

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Speaker 1: was not, you know, technically drunk, but came around the

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Speaker 1: curve and head on into another car. In that car

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Speaker 1: was a young woman and her fiancee. They wished to

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Speaker 1: be married, um at least later, but the younger dad

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Speaker 1: and my father was prisoned. My father was, in my mind,

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Speaker 1: had always been the good doctor. He was a dentist.

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Speaker 1: We lived in a nice Sbourban home, We belonged to

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Speaker 1: the country club. Everything before his death had always seemed

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Speaker 1: like the good time of our life, and I always

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Speaker 1: thought if only Dad were a lot of things would

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Speaker 1: be better. He's a good guy. By this time, my

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Speaker 1: mom had been dating on and off for a very

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Speaker 1: long time, an alcoholic, um abusive man who tried his

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Speaker 1: dentist but just as kind of had his own names

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Speaker 1: and and to me, he represented all that was bad,

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Speaker 1: and my dad represented all that was good. And to me,

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Speaker 1: years become terms that you know, maybe not everyone that

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Speaker 1: can be defined by one act in their life. And

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Speaker 1: I was able to give both my mom's boyfriend and

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Speaker 1: my dad, but I still struggle with to give me

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Speaker 1: my family, my half sisters and brothers, and my mom

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Speaker 1: keeping that secret from me because now I kind of

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Speaker 1: always live wondering when the next shoe for the next

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Speaker 1: secret is going to dropped. If you'd like to share

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Speaker 1: your story, call one eight eight eight Secret zero and

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Speaker 1: record your story. We won't be able to run all

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Speaker 1: the stories, but we do want to shine a light

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Speaker 1: on as many as we can. The number again is

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Speaker 1: one eight eight Secret and then the numeral zero. For

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Speaker 1: more podcasts for my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart

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Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your

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Speaker 1: favorite show. Us