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 related to your
Speaker 1: whole story of inheritance because we kind of went through
Speaker 1: a similar journey with our family in the last couple
Speaker 1: of years. My sister and I have always noticed that
Speaker 1: my dad is just beautifully dark compared to his siblings,
Speaker 1: and my sister sat down and did the Mass in
Speaker 1: high school and realized Dad was conceived when my grandpa
Speaker 1: was deployed away in the Navy. UM our aunts had
Speaker 1: kind of secretly mentioned to us that they overheard an
Speaker 1: argument between our grandparents when they were young about UM
Speaker 1: fighting about my dad and his teenage behavior problem, and
Speaker 1: grandma said, well, I still know where he lives, should
Speaker 1: he go live with him? And my aunt's just inferred
Speaker 1: that obviously my dad maybe has a different dad. Well,
Speaker 1: my grandma passed away in two thousand. She would be
Speaker 1: who we would ask questions you now as well if
Speaker 1: we were wondering, But she's not here to ask. My grandpa,
Speaker 1: who has raised my dad now has been mentioned, so
Speaker 1: it's not right to ask him or to try to
Speaker 1: involve him in something like this. The sisal private, and
Speaker 1: so for fun we got our parents ancestry DNA kits,
Speaker 1: and sure enough, nothing of who we know to be
Speaker 1: my dad's relatives came up, but a whole bunch of
Speaker 1: Spanish and Cuban relatives started popping up that UM confirmed
Speaker 1: that my dad has this beautiful, dark ethnicity to him
Speaker 1: that we kind of always joked about when we are
Speaker 1: this Midwestern, supposedly Irish family. UM. Well, we sat on
Speaker 1: our results for about a year and finally went down
Speaker 1: the research hole online you know, Google and Facebook, and
Speaker 1: we ended up finding out dad has two half brothers
Speaker 1: in Florida. UM. His biological dad passed away in the eighties,
Speaker 1: but we actually got to fly down to Florida and
Speaker 1: needed his family, the biological family of my dad, and
Speaker 1: obviously my dad came with and it was actually incredibly
Speaker 1: healing and we were shocked at how welcoming they were.
Speaker 1: And I think it's brought a lot of peace and
Speaker 1: closure for our whole family. But you know, it's something
Speaker 1: we just kind of knew in our gut this whole time.
Speaker 1: Even my dad said he always wondered and something that
Speaker 1: was real. Thank you, Hi. I just stumbled upon your
Speaker 1: podcast not long ago and I've been binging all the episodes, UM,
Speaker 1: and I have a family secret to share as all.
Speaker 1: So UM. When I was ten, I got sick. I
Speaker 1: was told that I had non cancerous tumor in my
Speaker 1: lungs and that they successfully removed it, and I moved
Speaker 1: on with my life. UM. I spent a lot of
Speaker 1: time at the local children's hospital, often in me I
Speaker 1: see you. During this time, UM. As I got older,
Speaker 1: family were referred to this time as a time when
Speaker 1: I was quote sick. But when I was fifteen, I
Speaker 1: developed a cough to turn out to be a mild
Speaker 1: case of pneumonia. But before being told this, my parents
Speaker 1: seemed extremely anxious, and I couldn't understand why. I was
Speaker 1: beginning to get very frustrated with what appeared to me
Speaker 1: to be them hovering and having this overconcerned. When it
Speaker 1: was confirmed that I had pneumonia, they sat me down
Speaker 1: and explained why they were acting the way they did. UM,
Speaker 1: And they told me I had actually had a rare
Speaker 1: form of cancer when I was ten, not some small,
Speaker 1: non cancerous tumor in my lung um, and they thought
Speaker 1: these symptoms of pneumonia meant a return of my dies.
Speaker 1: I of course, had no idea that I was a
Speaker 1: cancer survivor. Yet when I brought it up to people
Speaker 1: around me, including people outside of my family like old neighbors,
Speaker 1: they all knew this about me. UM. To this day,
Speaker 1: it's still something we don't really speak of. Uh. We
Speaker 1: refer to my juvenile cancer as again a time when
Speaker 1: I was sick. It's a part of my life that
Speaker 1: I lived, Yet I feel as though I didn't live. Hi. There,
Speaker 1: I'm calling about a family secret that was one that
Speaker 1: I am my ex husband held for twenty five years, UM,
Speaker 1: and that secret is that our son was conceived by
Speaker 1: our official infiminationnorum examination UM. Because of this show, not indirectly,
Speaker 1: but at the very least, I was encouraged by your podcast, Danny,
Speaker 1: to let my son know in fact, I just told
Speaker 1: him yesterday. It's very fresh, UM that that, in fact
Speaker 1: his dad is not his biological father, and UM told
Speaker 1: him the whole story of the journey that we took
Speaker 1: which got us to the point of of him ultimately,
Speaker 1: So UM, it's very fresh news for him, but he
Speaker 1: has been incredibly gracious and accepting of the news at
Speaker 1: this point. I'm sure there are layers, UM that are
Speaker 1: going to reveal themselves as the years go by. But
Speaker 1: I can't think you enough in the whole community that's
Speaker 1: come together around family secrets in this wonderful podcast, for
Speaker 1: encouraging me and knowing that my fears about his reaction
Speaker 1: were much less important ultimately than him knowing the truth
Speaker 1: of who he really is. And that's a conclusion I
Speaker 1: came to gradually and very much was encouraged to make
Speaker 1: because of this podcast. So thanks again, and I have
Speaker 1: a huge weight off my shoulders after finally sharing this
Speaker 1: one secret. Yeah, if you'd like to share your story,
Speaker 1: call one eight eight eight Secret zero and record your story.
Speaker 1: We won't be able to run all the stories, but
Speaker 1: we do want to shine a light on as many
Speaker 1: as we can. The number again is one eight eight
Speaker 1: secret and then the numeral zero. For more podcasts for
Speaker 1: my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple podcast,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.