Bonus: Listener Stories, Episode 7

In this bonus episode we hear from listeners in the Family Secrets community.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Family Secrets is a production of I Heart Radio. I'm
Danny Shapiro, and this is family Secrets, the secrets that
are kept from us, the secrets we keep from others,
and the secrets we keep from ourselves. As I tore

(00:23):
the nation from my book Inheritance, I've heard from so
many about your own family secrets and realize that what
we are creating for each other on this podcast is
a community, a community for those who are looking for
a safe and supportive space to unburden themselves. To that end,
we've created a number for listeners to call in to

(00:43):
record stories to share here in this space. This week,
I'd like to share a few of those stories from
our community. Thanks for listening. I have lost most of
my family and on a whim, I sent my DNA
into ancestry and low and behold found out that I

(01:09):
have a cousin whose father was adopted. UM a very
very close relation where UM like first or second cousins.
I don't know the details and if we share a
great grandfather or a grandfather, but UM, we have really connected.
And losing all my family, it's been just a warful

(01:30):
experience to have someone come into my life that's family,
and I believed for him as well, because he's never
had a blood relative like this um that's appeared. So
we're actually planning a vacation. We met in person, and
we're planning a vacation and going to Louise this fall.

(01:51):
So it's from it's definitely worth it to step out
there and see what comes back. Thanks. Hi. This isn't
probably my secret to tell, but I wanted to share
it because I love the healing that has come out
of it. So I have an aunt that um, my

(02:13):
family and I had gone to stay with for a
few summers after my parents got divorced, and and she
was always somebody who was super into everything had to
look perfect, everything had to be just right and done
in just the right way. A very strict person, but
a very kind hearted person obviously since she took us in,
but she was really hard to get along with a
lot of times. And another detail that goes with it

(02:37):
is that my family is Mormon or Latter Day Saint,
and so images are even that much more important to
them in a lot of ways, um, And and that
was very much apparent through her life and the way
that she treated us and her family and her children
in particular. Well, Um, it was really interesting because her

(02:57):
son UM was given a DNA pad us by his
in laws a few years ago and it turned out
that he had a half brother match that he had
never known about. And it turned out that this aunt,
who had such an obsession over perfection, UM had to
give up a baby for adoption when she was nineteen
years old, and so Um they finally got to find

(03:20):
out about that they all had a bigger brother. This
is the oldest brother out of six children in total
for for my aunt, and from what I understand, when
it came out, my aunt was very reluctant to talk
about it at first, but eventually, over a couple of
weeks UM, after my cousin had gotten the message that

(03:41):
he might have a brother in law, she finally decided
to open up. And it's been really awesome to see
because I didn't know that this had happened a few
years ago, but just from the outside looking at it,
I've definitely seen her soft in over the years and
being less judgmental and and less uptight about how things
looked in appearents and and it directly correlates with the

(04:03):
time when she was coming up to her immediate family
that she had a son that they've never told them about,
and the fact that they had all accepted and embraced
her still even though it wasn't a part of their religion,
they still loved her and they opened it up. And
and I just find that to be an amazing and
truly healing story. And and it tells about our time

(04:24):
nowadays that were so much more accepting about things that
could be perceived as mistakes or even are starting to
be redefined as not mistakes, but these things that happened,
And and I just love that. So thanks so much
for everything you've been sharing, and I hope that this
continues to help people heal. Goodbye. This podcast has been

(04:45):
extremely helpful to me as my family and I have
gone through finding out our own family secret this past
little while. Of finding out and we had a half
plaint that we were not aware of, and in listening
to other stories and other people's experiences of dealing with

(05:07):
their family secrets, that has been incredibly powerful and incredibly
wonderful and strengthening for me and for my family as
we're going through our own journey. If you'd like to
share your story, call one eight eight eight Secret zero

(05:31):
and record your story. 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.

(05:55):
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