Bonus: Listener Stories, Episode 22

In this bonus episode we hear from listeners in the Family Secrets community. To share your secret, call 1-888-SECRET-0.

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Family Secrets is a production of I Heart Radio. Hi
Family Secrets. Family. It's Danny and we're back with an
episode of listener Messages. Here are some stories recorded by

(00:20):
you are wonderful devoted listeners. I'm honored and grateful that
you're part of my world. Hi. I found out at
five years old that my father is not my biological father,

(00:45):
that he and my mom used a storm downer for
my brother and I after learning that he couldn't produce children.
All I remember was taking me for a drive and
sharing the news and I went hysterical, saying, no, I
look like you, I look like you, and um him
just affirming that I don't, but that he still loved me.

(01:08):
Fast forward, as he's about a year later. I did
take the DNA test and have been connected with several
of my half siblings, and just two weeks ago, one
of the half siblings I connected with has information on
our sperm donor. And this man was the doctor who
went to Alaska and just so to pay off his

(01:30):
loans for medical school, but showed up with an attitude
of helping the community, singing and dancing with the people
at their festivals, and unfortunately, on his seven hour snowbile
drive to the hospital, was caught in the worst snowstorm
and over twenty years and was killed and never found
his body. He shared a photo which was very, very

(01:53):
shocking because he looks identical to my brother. So to
learn who I came from and that he's no longer here,
all in a matter of moments was quite a shock. Thankfully,
I've been in touch with his family, who have been
open and receptive, and it's been quite a wild, wild journey.

(02:14):
We believe there's about eleven of us children that came
from his firm donation. I'm thankful this podcast because hearing
it has been very healing, through very emotional in crazy time.
Thank you. I love Inheritance and loved the podcast. My

(02:35):
father never mentioned his family. We only knew, or we
thought we knew, that his parents died in the nineteen thirties,
and so about five years ago we embarked on a
personal family history quest and in a pair of ship records,
we discovered that my Italian immigrant grandparents arrived at Dallas
Island in the early nineteen twenties. In the nine thirty centses.

(02:57):
We found that this family of four, my grandparents, my
father and his brother had a very tenuous footholds on
the American Dream, and then based on what few family
stories there were, UM, we all always assumed that my
grandparents died sometimes shortly thereafter in the nineteen thirties, because
my father never mentioned any members of his family, and

(03:18):
we thought we had a dead end there, and he
passed away about twenty five years ago. UM. When the
census was released, my grandparents magically reappeared. UM. But that's
not kind of the worst. UM. They were both listed
as inmates UM in separate places of the sentences record
after Rockland Insane Asylum. Fast forward through a few more

(03:41):
years of research, and we discovered that they had actually
lived unmentioned by my father for any of the time
that that he was surround, That my grandfather actually lived
until nineteen and my grandmother lived until two thousand and two,
and all of this was unknown to any of them.
And we discovered subsequent to them that they were both

(04:04):
buried in unmarked grade. So we're left with a huge boy.
We've been trying to find out what happened. But New
York State is horrendous when it comes to releasing health
records of dead people and so what happened? You know,
who are these people? How did their lives go so crazy?
What happened to make my dad walk away from his family?

(04:24):
Those are some of the secrets that we're trying to
get to the bottom up. Hi, Danny, I just wanted
to thank you so much for creating a wonderful podcast
that has helped me so much. It has helped so
much that I wanted to share my family secret with you.
When I was nineteen, I found out that the wonderful

(04:47):
man who raised me was not my biological father. When
I went to my mom to talk to her about this,
she gave me and I will use fake names. These
are not people's real names. Um, but I've got to
assigned so names because it gets a little confusing. She
told me that my biological father will say his name
is John Doe. And she told me that when she

(05:08):
found out she was pregnant, she told John Doe that
she was pregnant, and he told her he was not interested,
that he was engaged to be married to another woman.
So then she went to the man who raised me
told him that she was pregnant, and he said, well, um,
it's probably not mine. Because I was in Vietnam and
I was exposed to agent Orange, so I'm medically syrile.

(05:30):
The man who raised me, though, told my mother that
he would marry her and that they would raise me
as their own, and they would never tell me. So anyway,
I really had no interest in reaching out to John
Doe because, um, I mean, he had already rejected me
once my father, who raised me. My birth certificate father
passed away about ten years ago. And when COVID hit, um,

(05:52):
you know, we were in lockdown, quarantined and a little bored,
and so I decided to take an ancestry DNA test.
When the results came back, I did not match with
John Doe or the man who raised me. I matched
with another man entirely, and we'll just call him Mike.
So when I spoke with my mom, um, she had
no memory of a man named Mike, and um, long

(06:14):
story short, I finally ended up reaching out to Mike.
He called me back and has been so wonderful and open,
caring and loving throughout all of this. He has reassured
me that had he known about me, he would have
done everything in his power to have been part of
my life. Of course, this has been crazy, a wild

(06:39):
ride and it's been amazing. And this past weekend I
got to go and meet him um and I found
out that I have two other half sisters that I
was also able to meet for nieces and the nephew.
So life is great and I just wanted to share
my story with you guys. H We'll be back with

(07:09):
season five of Family Secrets beginning April one. We will
be sharing these listeners stories from time to time and
also more great bonus content between now and then, so
hope you'll listen in. If you'd like to share your story,
call one eight eight eight Secret zero and record your story.

(07:32):
We won't be able to run all the stories, but
we do want to shine a light on as many
as we can. The number again is one eight eight
eight Secret and then the numeral zero. For more podcasts

(07:59):
from my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app,
Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows