Speaker 1: Family Secrets is a production of I Heart Radio. This January,
Speaker 1: Danny's taking Family Secrets on the road. To get your tickets,
Speaker 1: visit Danny Shapiro dot com. I'm Danny Shapiro and this
Speaker 1: is Family Secrets, the secrets that are kept from us,
Speaker 1: the secrets we keep from others, and the secrets we
Speaker 1: keep from ourselves. I've heard from so many about your
Speaker 1: own family secrets and realize that what we are creating
Speaker 1: for each other on this podcast is a community, a
Speaker 1: community for those who are looking for a safe and
Speaker 1: supportive space to unburden themselves. To that end, we've created
Speaker 1: a number for listeners to call in to record stories
Speaker 1: to share here in this space. This week, I'd like
Speaker 1: to share a few of those stories from our community.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening. Hi, Danny, Um, I am calling from Ohio. UM.
Speaker 1: I am sixty years old, just turned sixty. All of
Speaker 1: my life I felt as though I did not look
Speaker 1: like um. My birth certificate fathers like him or his family.
Speaker 1: And I'm eight years apart from my brother and six
Speaker 1: years apart from my sister in age. So I had
Speaker 1: questioned that all my life. I in Christmas of eighteen,
Speaker 1: I took it ancestry DNA tests and discovered that my truth,
Speaker 1: my feelings were actually truth. UM, that my who I
Speaker 1: knew as my father all my life was not my father.
Speaker 1: I actually found through then getting a DNA detective to
Speaker 1: help me research it, that I have a half sister
Speaker 1: and a half niece in California, UM, and I was
Speaker 1: given contact information. I contacted her. She knew all about me. UM.
Speaker 1: It was very emotional for me hearing someone say, you're
Speaker 1: my sister. I've known about you since I was sixteen,
Speaker 1: so I am two years older than her I would
Speaker 1: have been eighteen. UM. So I'm still trying to wrap
Speaker 1: my head around how all these people knew about me
Speaker 1: and no one told me, No one slipped ever, and
Speaker 1: everyone is deceased now, my parents, UM, my real father, everyone.
Speaker 1: So I have one elderly cousin to my birth father
Speaker 1: that has been extremely helpful showing me photos and telling
Speaker 1: me stories of my father, my birth father. So it's
Speaker 1: it's been a struggle, a long journey and of an
Speaker 1: emotional roller coaster. And my story goes a lot deeper
Speaker 1: than that. I have love letters my mother wrote. My
Speaker 1: half sister provided me with stacks of love letters she
Speaker 1: wrote during her pregnancy with me, which gave me some
Speaker 1: of the answers to what went on, but still left
Speaker 1: me with more questions. I just wanted to share that,
Speaker 1: and UM, I thank you for listening. Ye him. My
Speaker 1: secret is that I was dating someone on Tinder and
Speaker 1: I got pregnant and I had his day. Um. But
Speaker 1: the real secret is I actually don't know who the
Speaker 1: father is. UM. And this was really really difficult for
Speaker 1: me to expressed to my family. I am from a
Speaker 1: Muslim family, in a practicing Muslim family, and so for
Speaker 1: me to even be pregnant, uh, with anybody's child is
Speaker 1: like a shock anybody's child out of marriage. UM. For
Speaker 1: me to be pregnant with someone's child who I was
Speaker 1: seeing on Tinder is something they probably couldn't have handled.
Speaker 1: So I basically told them a lie about me needing
Speaker 1: someone I had to like. I kind of got married
Speaker 1: to them, we eloped pregnant. I don't think they believe
Speaker 1: it to this day, but UM, that's kind of the
Speaker 1: story that I was I was feeling comfortable telling them. UM.
Speaker 1: If they ever found out that I actually don't know
Speaker 1: who the father is, I think that they would just
Speaker 1: be mind boggle. Mind. Boggle is the word that comes
Speaker 1: to my mind. Um. But it happened, and it happens.
Speaker 1: It happens, um, not just in my face, it happens everybody,
Speaker 1: like all around the world. Where you make certain decisions
Speaker 1: in your life, UM, and you then decide what you're
Speaker 1: going to do with those decisions. UM. And so I
Speaker 1: chose to have the baby, UM. And I am so glad,
Speaker 1: so glad that I had my child. I just adore him,
Speaker 1: I love him to it. I don't know yet how
Speaker 1: I'm going to break it to him that I don't
Speaker 1: know who the father is. But I'll cross that bridge
Speaker 1: when I get to it. Hey, Danny, I found out
Speaker 1: one of our family's secrets about twenty years ago. UM.
Speaker 1: I was married at the time and having a hard
Speaker 1: time conceiving a child myself. And around the same time,
Speaker 1: my sister was going through a hard time and I
Speaker 1: haven't to speak to her childhood friend whom I have
Speaker 1: not had not talked to and cry a long while.
Speaker 1: And she, in the course of conversation, mentioned something about
Speaker 1: having when she was there for my sister's um last
Speaker 1: child when her last child was born, and I mentioned
Speaker 1: my nephew's name, and she kind of realized that I
Speaker 1: didn't know, but she went ahead and told me that no,
Speaker 1: she meant her third child and must only have two.
Speaker 1: And I learned that she had found out she was
Speaker 1: pregnant while she was in between marriages, and it was
Speaker 1: too far along to make any other decision than to
Speaker 1: have the child and give it up for adoption. Of course,
Speaker 1: I was hurt that she hadn't thought of me, knowing
Speaker 1: that that I so desperately wanted a child, But the
Speaker 1: friend explained to me that she had thought of that.
Speaker 1: I thought it would be too difficult to have this
Speaker 1: child be so ever present in her life, so instead
Speaker 1: she chose to um because it maybe up to her
Speaker 1: friend's cousin. To this day, I have never talked about
Speaker 1: it to anyone in my family. I don't know if
Speaker 1: my sister knows that I know. I don't know if
Speaker 1: my mom or my dad had known, or I have
Speaker 1: no idea. UM. Maybe one day I'll get up courage
Speaker 1: to actually ask her. With all this DNA testing, I
Speaker 1: can't help but wonder, one of these days is there
Speaker 1: going to be this kid? This man um piving me
Speaker 1: a message thing? I think I'm part of your family. Well, thanks, Danny,
Speaker 1: I appreciate you're listening to my story, and I look
Speaker 1: forward to hearing other people's stories of If you'd like
Speaker 1: to share your story, call one eight Secret zero and
Speaker 1: record your story. We won't be able to run all
Speaker 1: the stories, but we do want to shine a light
Speaker 1: on as many as we count. The number again is
Speaker 1: one eight eight Secret and then the numeral zero. For
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Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your
Speaker 1: favorite shows.