Speaker 1: Family Secrets is a production of I Heart Radio. I'm
Speaker 1: Danny Shapiro, and this is family Secrets, the secrets that
Speaker 1: are kept from us, the secrets we keep from others,
Speaker 1: and the secrets we keep from ourselves. As I tore
Speaker 1: the nation from my book Inheritance, I've heard from so
Speaker 1: many about your own family secrets and realize that what
Speaker 1: we are creating for each other on this podcast is
Speaker 1: a community, a community for those who are looking for
Speaker 1: a safe and supportive space to unburden themselves. To that end,
Speaker 1: we've created a number for listeners to call in to
Speaker 1: record stories to share here in this space. This week,
Speaker 1: I'd like to share a few of those stories from
Speaker 1: our community. Thanks for listening, Hi, I wanted to share
Speaker 1: my story worry about being protected from a secret and
Speaker 1: share a first cousin story who's still in the throws
Speaker 1: of the family secret. So, growing up, my mother was
Speaker 1: a single mom for a little while to three children,
Speaker 1: and she met my dad or my stepdad, UM when
Speaker 1: I was years old, and I, of course, just as
Speaker 1: a little girl, film up with him. He was so
Speaker 1: much fun and um. Over the course of quite a
Speaker 1: few years, I remember my mom pulling me aside and
Speaker 1: telling me, Um, you know you can call him dad.
Speaker 1: He loved you, but he's not your father. There's another
Speaker 1: man out there and one day you will get to
Speaker 1: meet him, hopefully. And I did when I was twenty
Speaker 1: years old, which is another long story. UM, I did
Speaker 1: meet my biological father and UM last year I was
Speaker 1: I'm in my thirties now, I took my whole family out.
Speaker 1: We actually went to his house for the first time
Speaker 1: ever and met some of my half siblings for the
Speaker 1: first time ever, and it was amazing and I felt complete.
Speaker 1: I know that sounds cheesy, but I felt very complete
Speaker 1: and loved and it just explained these unexplainable, invisible things.
Speaker 1: So the other side of the story is my first cousin.
Speaker 1: It would be my mother's sister's son who UM grew
Speaker 1: up calling my uncle dad, and it's not Actually he's
Speaker 1: not his biological father. And unfortunately I'm privy to this
Speaker 1: um unfortunate information through family drama and gossip. And my
Speaker 1: aunt doesn't know that I know my cousin. He doesn't
Speaker 1: even know anything about it. And I just really feel
Speaker 1: for him because I've seen him over the years. We've
Speaker 1: been very close for seven months apart. Um, there's something
Speaker 1: missing in his life. I believe this is what it is,
Speaker 1: not knowing that side of his family, and I could
Speaker 1: be completely wrong, but my heart does ache for him.
Speaker 1: He has a younger brother, and there's some very very
Speaker 1: big differences, and you know, it just makes you wonder
Speaker 1: why one sister would tell the truth and the other
Speaker 1: one wouldn't. Um, maybe just hide it and be more private. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I wanted to share my story. And also I
Speaker 1: have three small children, and I always tell them there
Speaker 1: are no secrets in this house. There are no good secrets.
Speaker 1: So I don't know if that's a good thing, but
Speaker 1: I do tell them that. So I'm all about the truth,
Speaker 1: even when it's hard. Thank you so much for your podcast.
Speaker 1: That's really like hidden out with me in my heart,
Speaker 1: and I just really am enjoying it. Hi. UM. My
Speaker 1: family secret is that when I was about ten years old,
Speaker 1: I found some family documents showing that um, the man
Speaker 1: I believed to be my father had legally adopted me
Speaker 1: when I was a child, and that I had a
Speaker 1: man that did not want to be involved in my life. Um.
Speaker 1: I did meet him later on, and he still adamantly
Speaker 1: just did not want to be in vault. Um growing up.
Speaker 1: I'm now in my thirties and at the ancestry DNA
Speaker 1: just too. I think that I was proving that he
Speaker 1: was my biological father, and come to find out he
Speaker 1: is not. Um, I've now found this whole other family
Speaker 1: that I did not know that I had, and this
Speaker 1: man that is my biological father had wanted to be
Speaker 1: involved in my life. So now we are in the
Speaker 1: process of tracking him down and getting to know this
Speaker 1: whole o their family. UM. So that is my family secret.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Hi. I thought i'd call in and share
Speaker 1: some of my story. So very long and convoluted story
Speaker 1: with lots of twists and turns, So I'll try and
Speaker 1: be brief and just pick the one that kind of
Speaker 1: is the most present and prevalent in my current situation. UM.
Speaker 1: My mother family had always told me that a certain
Speaker 1: man was my father. UM. He was never involved in
Speaker 1: my brother in my life. My brother and I are
Speaker 1: two years apart. UM. He appeared all of a sudden
Speaker 1: when my brother and I were thirteen and fifteen, respectively. Well,
Speaker 1: I was thirteen and he was fifteen. He was in
Speaker 1: town for a wedding and we and we met him,
Speaker 1: and I remember when we met him, um for the
Speaker 1: first time, looking at him and then looking at my
Speaker 1: brother and thinking, wow, what a resemblance, but then feeling
Speaker 1: really lost because I looked nothing like him. I should
Speaker 1: mention that my family is is Italian and um, this
Speaker 1: man was black. Um, and my brother was visibly mixed.
Speaker 1: Um I was not. I never was. Fast forward into
Speaker 1: my early twenties, I married, I have my first child,
Speaker 1: and my husband is kind of poking fun at me
Speaker 1: that you know, you can't possibly think that's your father.
Speaker 1: And keeping in mind again, I had no relationship with
Speaker 1: this man. He just you know, I know of him.
Speaker 1: There's no name on my birth certificate. My mother gave
Speaker 1: me her last name, but she gave my brother our
Speaker 1: father's last name. Um, it's the last words. And I said,
Speaker 1: you know, you might have a point. So I slide
Speaker 1: to the province that he's in and we do a
Speaker 1: DNA test, and of course she's not my father. I
Speaker 1: confront my mother and UM, she denies, and she's she
Speaker 1: shounds so convincing in her life that you know, I
Speaker 1: don't know what you're talking about. This is he's the
Speaker 1: only person that it could be so I kind of
Speaker 1: leave it at that, and I asked the family and
Speaker 1: they say, no, well, I mean this is that's to
Speaker 1: your father's And he said, well, you know, I'm white
Speaker 1: like she was black. Hello, um, I felt like it
Speaker 1: was in the toilet, don't really. Just then fast forward
Speaker 1: another ten years and my mother dies out there's various
Speaker 1: things that she had along with her, and I do
Speaker 1: the end sister Dnah test and it comes back that
Speaker 1: UM with some second cousin matches UM from Portugal. So
Speaker 1: I find out that my my father's family is from
Speaker 1: the a source UM in Portugal. And so I'm on
Speaker 1: a mission to try and locate my father and it's
Speaker 1: very difficult because the families are you know, ten and
Speaker 1: twenty siblings large. But I'm on my way, and at
Speaker 1: least now I know what the other side of me is.
Speaker 1: Thanks for letting me share my story. Take care. If
Speaker 1: you'd like to share your story, call one eight eight
Speaker 1: eight Secret zero and record your story. We won't be
Speaker 1: able to run all the stories, but we do want
Speaker 1: to shine a light on as many as we can.
Speaker 1: The number again is one eight eight secret and in
Speaker 1: the numeral zero for more podcasts for My Heart radio,
Speaker 1: visit the I heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.