What's your Family's Dark Secret?

What's your Family's Dark Secret?

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
What's your family's dark secretstory 1?
I don't really think this is a dark secret, but it's something
I didn't find out until I was anadult.
Mostly because my grandma doesn't like talking about it so
I think it counts. While going through some of my
grandma's old belongings after my mother passed away, I found a
few photographs of a baby. It wasn't my mom because she had

(00:21):
dark, almost black hair at birth, while this baby was
blonde. Alongside the photos, I found a
birth certificate for someone named Francesco, mom's maiden
name. I asked my grandma about it, and
at first she didn't want to tellme.
I gave her some space and eventually she must have decided
that I deserve to know. Or maybe she was just tired of

(00:41):
keeping the secret because she told me the story.
Francesco, or Frank as they called him, was my grandma's
son, my mom's younger brother, by a couple of years.
When Frank was three, my grandma's ex-husband kidnapped
him and she never saw him again.My grandma's ex-husband, my
grandfather, though I don't consider him as such, especially

(01:02):
since I never met him, was involved with the mob.
It's suspected that he took Frank with him back to Sicily,
but nobody is certain. My grandma believes he might
have taken my mom too, had she not been in the hospital at the
time, sick with tonsillitis. This has given me some insight
into why that side of my family can be so secretive about

(01:22):
certain things. For example, I didn't even know
my mom had been married before she met my dad until I was a
teenager. It also makes me feel deeply
sorry for my grandma, who had tocarry this pain all her life
story too. My great grandmother was married
to her first husband, an Italianmobster, in New York in the
early 1920s. They had four children together.

(01:44):
In 1928, six years after they were married, she disappeared,
and no one in the family knew what had happened to her.
Quietly, they all assumed her husband had her killed, as he
was known to be very abusive toward her, but that wasn't the
case. She ran off with my great
grandfather. They moved to Philadelphia and
changed their last names. They were always very secretive

(02:05):
about their past. No one knew their original
family names or where they had come from until I took Adna test
and matched with a third cousin descended from her first set of
children. It turns out her original four
children were sent to orphanage because their father couldn't
take care of them. The discovery was a huge
surprise for both sides of the family and brought up some very

(02:26):
hurt feelings, especially for the children she had abandoned.
Although they are now in their 90s, this revelation affected
them their entire lives. Story 3 My paternal grandmother
got pregnant with my dad when she was about 17 in a small town
in northern Louisiana. She claimed my grandfather was
abusive, so she and her sisters took off for New Mexico when she

(02:47):
was 19 and my dad was not yet two years old.
Along the way, she unexpectedly gave birth to my uncle, who
bears little resemblance to my dad even though they have the
same mom. After settling in New Mexico, my
grandma openly had an affair with her 60 something year old
boss until she met my step grandfather.
He was a great guy and raised mydad and uncle as if they were

(03:09):
his own children. Eventually, my step grandfather
was overjoyed when my grandma got pregnant with his baby.
But when my aunt was born, she bore A striking resemblance to
my grandma's boss. That's when things took a
dramatic turn. The boss's wife showed up at
their house with a gun and a checkbook, declaring that one of
the two would be used to get my grandma to leave.
In 1961. My grandma accepted a check for

(03:31):
about $10,000 and she and my step grandfather used the money
to buy a new house. Things seemed fine for a while,
but my grandma went on to have countless affairs.
She married two more times, and her betrayals devastated my step
grandfather. After raising all three of her
children, he ended up taking hisown life.
Even then, my grandma tried to swoop in and claim his Social

(03:53):
Security survivor benefits. Right before my grandma passed
away a few years ago, she kickedout her last husband, cleaned
out their joint savings account,and took off with my aunt and
cousins to Arkansas right after I was born.
My biological grandfather, the one my grandma had accused of
being abusive, showed up on our doorstep.
He brought boxes full of letters, birthday cards, and

(04:15):
newspaper clippings about my dad's achievements like sports
and earning his PhD. My grandma had gone through all
of it, taken the cash and checkshe had sent and kept the rest.
Just to be cruel. She had returned the remnants to
him over the years. It turns out my biological
grandfather was a great guy. He was never abusive and he

(04:35):
missed my dad terribly. He had worked blue collar jobs
his whole life and couldn't afford to leave town and fight
for custody. The real reason my grandma left
at 19 was because she'd had an affair with the local Buick
salesman and his wife had shown up with a gun and no checkbook
this time. Additional context.
Before I knew all this, I thought my grandma was just a

(04:57):
sweet, typical grandmother to me.
She was kind and loving. She was great with my brother,
who has severe autism and was a supportive mother-in-law to my
mom. She also had a stunning beauty
that made her the center of attention.
If she were born in this generation, she could have
easily been a successful Instagram influencer.
However, depending on who you were in her life, her character

(05:19):
could be vastly different. She cut off my dad and our
family completely before her final move to Arkansas, and we
never understood why. We only learned of her passing
from my great aunt. She was a complex, contradictory
person, someone who could be amazing to some and destructive
to others. A beautiful, charismatic woman
whose flaws left a long trail ofheartbreak behind her.

(05:43):
Story 4. My grandma always told us that
my grandpa's mother died when hewas very young and his father
couldn't handle raising him, which is why he grew up with non
relatives. My sister and I did some digging
and the truth turned out to be much darker.
My great grandma was only 15 when my grandpa was born and my
great grandpa was in his late 20s.

(06:03):
From what we can tell, her family forced her to marry her
abuser. She didn't die when my grandpa
was little as my grandma claimed.
She actually passed away when mydad was a teenager.
The reality is that she left herunhappy situation when my
grandpa was still a child and never tried to see him again
after she left. My great grandpa abandoned my
grandpa. He left him on a neighbor's

(06:25):
porch in the middle of the nightand disappeared.
Later. He went on to have two more
children with another significantly younger woman.
I think my grandma lied about mygreat grandma dying to make my
grandpa seem more sympathetic. He was a mean old man and none
of his grandkids wanted to be around him.
My grandpa also repeated the cycle of abandonment.
He got his first wife pregnant just before leaving for military

(06:47):
training. When he returned, he claimed the
child wasn't his, even though she had named the baby after him
and kicked both mother and childout.
My grandma knew that the child Junior was his, and she used to
secretly send money to his firstwife whenever she could without
my grandpa finding out. When my grandma became pregnant
with their first child, my grandpa tried to abandon her as

(07:09):
well. Her family literally held him at
gunpoint, forcing him to sign the birth certificate.
He later claimed their other children, including my dad, his
favorite and the only son he fully acknowledged, but he
always swore my uncle wasn't his.
None of the children from his marriage to my grandma ever met
their older half brother or his kids.
My grandma once confided in me that she had hated my grandpa

(07:31):
for almost their entire marriagebut felt she didn't know what
else to do besides stay with him.
It broke my heart to hear that she's such a sweet woman and
didn't deserve the way he treated her.
Story 5. I'm fairly certain my uncle was
in the Hell's Angels, or at least affiliated with them.
His funeral was unforgettable. The procession to the cemetery

(07:51):
was loud and proud. Edit Let me share a bit more
about him since this thread has gotten so much attention.
I've been told that my uncle wasa talented mechanic, even as a
teenager. There's a well known story in
our family about the time he completely dismantled a car,
leaving all the parts scattered across my grandmother's
backyard. My grandma challenged him,

(08:12):
saying she'd give him $100 if hecould put it back together and
get it running again, and he did.
This was in the late 1960s or early 1970s, so $100 was a lot
of money back then. At one point he even owned his
own repair shop. Besides being an incredible
mechanic, he was also a motorcycle drag racer and very

(08:32):
popular with the ladies. At his funeral there was a long
line of ex girlfriends all thereto cry over him.
While all of my uncles were bikers, I think he's the only
one who truly became an outlaw type.
You could call him the black sheep of the family, but he was
loved by everyone. I only saw him during holidays
and I was just 12 years old whenhe passed away, so I never got

(08:52):
to know him well. My mom, however, loved telling
me stories about him. One of her favorites was how he
would hide under her bed until she fell asleep and then yank
her off the bed just to scare her.
Other times he'd hide outside her bedroom window and shoot her
with his BB gun. Even though I didn't know him
personally, it's clear he was a colorful, larger than life

(09:13):
character who left a lasting impression on everyone who knew
him. Story 6.
My great grandfather owned a large farm in Alabama.
He was an imposing man standing about 6 feet 6 inches with a
muscular and powerful build. He allowed black families who
work for him to live in houses on his property.
He was a strict old school German who expected mutual

(09:34):
respect, hard work, and for people to take care of the
property they lived on. While he was extremely tough, he
also tried to be fair in his ownway.
He had a habit of working his wives to death.
He had multiple over his lifetime, but he also looked out
for the families of his workers.When the men often failed to do
so, many of the male workers would spend their wages

(09:55):
gambling, drinking, and causing trouble.
My great grandfather would retrieve them from jail, deduct
food and supplies for their families from their wages, and
only give them what was left at cost.
One year, my dad had to live with him after my grandfather
lost his arm in an accident. While staying there, my dad fell
off a horse and broke his arm. Instead of sympathy, my great

(10:17):
grandfather beat him severely for being clumsy before finally
calling a doctor to treat the injury.
During one winter, some fence posts went missing and cattle
were roaming freely. My great grandfather discovered
that one of the workers had stolen the post to use his
firewood. In response, he beat the man to
death in front of his house and ordered the man's family to
leave the property. On another occasion, a piece of

(10:40):
equipment was damaged. My great grandfather lined up
all the workers to find out who was responsible.
One of the men, clearly guilty, mouthed off and challenged him.
Without hesitation, my great grandfather reached out and
broke the man's neck as if it were nothing.
He then calmly told the other workers to return to work and be
more careful. Afterward, he called the
sheriff, explained what had happened and had the body

(11:02):
removed. Back then, such killings were
often considered justified, and there was no need to involve the
courts. It was a completely different
time and world. My dad, who was a big and tough
man himself, never liked to talkabout his grandfather.
When he did, you could still hear the fear in his voice as
though he was speaking about thedevil himself.
Story 7. My mother has ruined multiple

(11:24):
lives throughout her own. Before seat belt laws were fully
enforced, she flipped a car while babysitting two kids who
were in the back seat. She survived.
They didn't. My grandparents hid all their
assets from the grieving family to avoid being sued for anything
meaningful later in life. She was driving her Camaro when
she wrapped it around a pole with her boyfriend in the
passenger seat. He was paralyzed.

(11:47):
She walked away with some scarring on her leg.
Some of my earliest childhood memories are tied to this event.
I remember the Camaro hidden under a tarp and a man who was
living in our upstairs room, presumably the boyfriend she
paralyzed. I wasn't allowed to see him or
talk to him. Eventually my parents shuffled
him out the door and left him tofend for himself.

(12:07):
Story 8. There are plenty of stories I
could share, but I'll stick withthe most recent one.
My sister-in-law abuses my brother.
She's punched him, smashed breakable objects over his head,
and even tried to run him over during an argument.
He left her for about 6 months, but she lured him back by
pretending she was going to change and take couples therapy
seriously. Predictably, she didn't.

(12:30):
She's a serial cheater and likely has some type of cluster
B personality disorder. She's also the most self
absorbed person I've ever met. Her family turns a blind eye to
her behavior, pretending she's done nothing wrong while my
brother has distanced himself from me because I won't act like
everything is fine with her. One example of her behavior, I
bought Christmas presents for myfamily but didn't get her

(12:52):
anything. Why would I when she's made it
clear she doesn't like me? She threw a tantrum acting like
a spoiled child. It didn't matter that she didn't
get anything from me or my husband either.
Worse, her tantrum happened on my dad's birthday, the second
one since he passed away. My family's grief didn't matter
to her. All that mattered was her
deserved gift. I refuse to play games with

(13:14):
abusers. They're always rigged and you're
set up to lose. Sadly, my brother has
internalized her hatred to the point where he believes he
deserves it. I only hope he wakes up someday,
especially before her toxicity ruins his relationship with his
daughter. Man or woman, no one should ever
give an abuser a free pass to continue hurting others.

(13:34):
Story 9. My grandpa embezzled a large
amount of money from a utilitiescompany on the East Coast of the
US back in the 1930s. His job was to purchase land
from farmers for utility poles. Instead of being honest, he
inflated the purchase amounts. For example, he claimed he paid
$2000 for a piece of land that he actually bought for $500,

(13:54):
pocketing the difference. Eventually, his scheme was
discovered and he became a wanted man.
At the time, he was married witha family.
Instead of facing the consequences, he decided to skip
town and head W. When he arrived, he found a
wallet in a cab and decided to steal the person's last name,
adopting it as his own. With this new identity, he
married my grandma and had four more kids.

(14:17):
He never contacted his first family again.
My dad, unknowingly, has been living with a fake family name
for over 70 years. Years later, my dad managed to
track down my grandpa's originalfamily.
They had no idea what had happened to their father and
were shocked to learn about the life he had built in the West.
My dad has stayed in touch with them since.

(14:37):
As a side note, my grandpa was much older when he married my
grandma. I'm only 31, but my biological
grandfather was born in the 1800s.
Storitan, my great grandfather, was reportedly A paranoid
schizophrenic. In the 1920s, he had to drop out
of school to take care of his mentally ill mother, which led
to a deep hatred of women. By the 1930s, he married my

(14:58):
great grandmother, who was only 14 at the time.
As the years went on, he became increasingly abusive and
misogynistic. He viewed my great grandmother
as worthless and treated her with utter contempt.
One story from that time is particularly chilling.
My great grandmother was so terrified for her life that she
took a giant teddy bear their daughter had won at a fair and

(15:21):
secretly sewed his shotgun inside it so he wouldn't find
it. Unfortunately, that wasn't his
only gun. One day, he called a family
meeting. He gathered my great grandmother
and their four children, who were all roughly middle or high
school age, into the living room.
He began ranting incoherently, saying things that made no
sense. Then he pulled out a gun and

(15:41):
shot my great grandmother. Immediately after, he shot
himself in the head in front of their children.
Miraculously, my great grandmother survived.
Doctors said the bullet missed, paralyzing her by less than half
an inch. However, she suffered severe
back problems for the rest of her life.
It took years for the full storyto come out, adding to the
trauma. Back then, there were no

(16:02):
professional cleaning services for situations like this.
The children not only witnessed the horrific event, but also had
to scrub their father's blood and brains off the walls
themselves. This is the first time the
story's been shared outside of our family.
It's a dark, painful piece of our history.
Story 11 As I've gotten older, I'm 22 now, my mom has started

(16:23):
opening up to me more. She talks to me and confides in
me as if I'm a close friend. One day, she shared something I
had never known. When my oldest brother, who is 6
years older than me, was a newborn, my dad left.
He didn't say a word. He just moved in with another
woman, leaving my mom alone to care for my brother.
My dad's parents, who absolutelyadore my mom, were furious with

(16:47):
him. He was gone for about a month.
Then out of nowhere, he called my mom and said he wanted to
come home. She took him back.
You'd never guess any of this. Now, 28 years later, my parents
are inseparable and I've never seen them fight.
My dad is the kindest man I've ever known.
He gives amazing advice and has raised us to be loyal,
compassionate partners in relationships and just good

(17:10):
people in general. It's not a particularly dark
story, but it's something only my mom and I know.
She didn't want me to tell my siblings, saying I was the only
one mature enough to handle it even though I'm the youngest.
She also didn't want my siblingsimage of their dad to be
tarnished. But what about my image of my
dad? Oh well, I guess I've learned to
see him as a person who made a mistake and grew from it.

(17:32):
Story 12. This isn't about my family, but
my godmother's. It happened in Los Angeles in
the early 1980s. My godmother deeply wanted more
children after having her son, but she couldn't get pregnant
again. Around this time, her
sister-in-law, who was in her early 20s, became pregnant out
of wedlock, which was consideredscandalous back then.

(17:53):
Seeing an opportunity, my godmother coerced her
sister-in-law into giving up thebaby as soon as it was born.
When it came time for the delivery, my godfather pretended
to be the father and my godmother instructed her
sister-in-law to be admitted to the hospital under her name.
As a result, my godparents nameswere listed as the parents on
the child's birth certificate. The situation created a sad

(18:15):
reality for the child. As she grew up, everyone in the
family knew the secret mean cousins would whisper about it
and tease her saying she wasn't really my godparents child.
However, she was never told the truth directly.
As an adult, she finally confronted my godmother and was
able to reconnect with her birthmother.
It's a heartbreaking story all around.
Story 13. My great grandmother is 103

(18:37):
years old. Last summer, my family decided
to dig into our ancestry, figuring that with her sharp
mind and long life, she'd be a great resource for our search.
Unfortunately, we were very wrong.
It turns out my great grandmother has changed her name
at least four times that we knowof on various legal documents.
Her name has slight variations like Mary on one and Marie on

(19:00):
another. As we continue digging, we found
birth records for my grandmotherand great aunt.
Both records revealed that they had multiple siblings they never
knew about, all with different fathers.
Even the mothers listed on the records had slight name
variations. For example, my great
grandmother's last name was spelled differently on each
document. When we brought these findings

(19:21):
to her, she brushed them off, insisting that the records were
inaccurate. We were digging too much and it
was all just flubbed paperwork. To this day, we don't know why
she felt the need to conceal heridentity so thoroughly, but she
refuses to talk about it. As a side note, before she sold
her house and moved into assisted living, she informed us
about a large amount of money hidden in the walls of her home,

(19:44):
so there's that too. Story 14.
Super late to share this, but here it is.
My father-in-law, let's call himJuan, has a long history of
abusive behavior, particularly toward my mother-in-law, Laura,
and their two children. Over the years, things only
worsened. Juan became addicted to pain
meds after a neck surgery, whichmade him increasingly unstable

(20:04):
and abusive. At one point, in an attempt to
stop Laura from leaving him, Juan researched how many pills
he could take to almost kill himself and then staged an
attempt, making a dramatic show of how he couldn't live without
her. This was just the start.
Over the next 10 to 15 years, there were multiple SUIC
attempts and countless other manipulative episodes.

(20:25):
Eventually, Laura divorced him and left with their two
children. My wife was 15 at the time, and
her brother Todd was around 13. Juan's parents, however, refused
to believe that their perfect son could do anything wrong.
They blame Laura entirely for Juan's behavior.
After the divorce, Juan moved back in with his parents, where
he still lives to this day. At 42 years old, he has no job,

(20:48):
pays no rent, and relies entirely on disability checks,
Perpetually playing the victim. Todd has bounced between living
with his parents for years. Despite Laura being a wonderful
mom who remarried a great man, Todd often preferred staying
with Juan because Juan used his disability checks to bribe him
to stay. Unfortunately, this exposed Todd
to Juan's bad influence, underage drinking being the most

(21:11):
significant issue, which Juan encouraged, saying Todd was old
enough to make his own choices. Juan continued being a terrible
father to both Todd and my wife even though we live 8 hours
away. He constantly called, texted,
and left hateful voicemails. The first message would be an
apology for his behavior, followed by rants like I should

(21:31):
have made Laura abort you and other vile statements.
Things came to a head when Todd,living with Juan at the time,
called my wife on his birthday, completely hysterical.
After an hour of calming him down, he finally told her that
Juan had gotten him drunk and raped him.
His sobs and broken voice left no doubt that he was telling the
truth. We told Laura immediately, and

(21:52):
she was devastated but ready to act.
She offered to fly Todd across the country to live with her,
and Todd willingly left Juan's house.
When Juan found out we knew the harassment escalated.
He called and texted relentlessly using multiple new
numbers every time we blocked him.
In one voicemail he admitted Todd was seducing me, followed
by I couldn't control myself while drunk and even I feel

(22:16):
violated. It was sickening.
A year later, my wife and I havea three month old son and one
now wants to be involved in our lives and meet his grandson.
That will never happen. Todd is living with his mom and
stepdad, getting therapy to healfrom the trauma.
Juan's parents, however, still refuse to believe the truth.
They insist that Juan could never do something like that and

(22:37):
blame Todd, saying obviously Todd seduced Juan.
Their denial has been so toxic that we've cut all ties with
them as well. They began harassing us until we
blocked their numbers too. For us, the safety and
well-being of our family come first.
Juan and his enablers have no place in our lives.
Story 15 Both sides of my familyhave their share of dark secrets

(22:58):
and hidden drama. It all started with my aunt, who
won $3.8 million in the lottery in the early 1990s.
Behind her white picket fence image, she was already
struggling with drug addiction. Over time, she tried just about
every drug until she discovered her favorite and the reason she
went to prison, Crystal meth. She started cooking meth in her

(23:18):
house even while her kids were present.
Eventually the house was raided and she was arrested for
manufacturing with intent to distribute.
She spent all her lottery winnings, served her time, and
now lives in a double wide trailer.
She's clean now, but it's a veryBreaking Bad story.
My dad had his own issues with gambling and drinking.

(23:38):
My parents used to leave me and my sister alone in our casino
hotel room at bedtime while theyspent the entire night gambling.
Only recently did I learn that my dad gambled away our college
funds. It also explains why we moved
from a big house to a much smaller one when I was in
elementary school. We lost that house too, thanks
to his risky stock market investments.

(23:58):
My mom, though, has been pretty amazing overall.
She sacrificed her career for uskids and did her best.
That said, not every choice was great.
Like pulling me out of math class at 15 to tell me she
wanted me to use the bat in the trunk of her car to attack my
dad. Not exactly a shining moment.
Grandpa #1 tore his family apartby having an affair with the
marriage counselor who was supposed to help him and my

(24:20):
grandma work through their issues.
To make matters worse, he had anestranged child with another
woman and paid for her silence. That didn't last forever though,
and now I have an aunt my age. Grandpa number 2 was more of a
mystery. He worked for Lockheed Skunk
Works on the Sr. 71 Blackbird and was both brilliant and
strange. He was also a jerk who never
attended a single birthday or Christmas event in my entire

(24:43):
life. While I don't know of any dark
secrets about him, I'm certain he had his share.
Story 16. I grew up never knowing my birth
father or his side of the family.
My mom always told me stories about how terrible they were.
I knew I had a half sister from him and another woman, but I
didn't reach out until after hisdeath.
I'm happy to say I now have a great relationship with my half

(25:06):
sister and some cousins who turned out much better than the
generation before them. A few years ago I did an
ancestry.com DNA test. Last year a first cousin popped
up whose name I didn't recognize.
I reached out and he told me he was adopted at birth and
searching for his family. After doing some math, I
realized he couldn't be from my mom's side.

(25:26):
She was only 8 when he was born.Further investigation revealed
he was the son of my father's sister.
She got pregnant and gave birth at 16 but never told anyone.
This cousin turned out to be oneof the kindest, most loving
people I've ever met. After exchanging messages, we
met in person. Sadly, his birth mother passed
away a few years before he couldmeet her, but I'm grateful to

(25:47):
have him in my life now. Story 17 Last November, I
decided to take a 23 Andme test.A few days ago I revisited the
results and noticed a section I hadn't explored before.
Possible DNA relatives. When I clicked on it, I was
shocked to find I had eight possible half siblings.
At first I assumed it had to be a glitch.
As far as I knew, my parents hadno other children besides me and

(26:11):
my younger sister, and they weredefinitely my biological
parents. Or so I thought.
Curious, I decided to message a few of these supposed half
siblings. One of them reached out to me on
Facebook and explained that we shared a father and that we were
all conceived via a sperm donor.I was completely confused and
thought it must be some big mistake.

(26:31):
I reached out to my mom for answers, but at first she
avoided the topic and tried to deny it.
However, as I continued talking with my half siblings and
gathering facts, the truth became undeniable.
For one, my mom had always told me she had difficulty conceiving
me. If the 23andMe results were a
glitch, it wouldn't have connected me with so many half
siblings. Scrolling through photos of

(26:53):
them, I realized I resembled them more than I resembled the
man I called my father. Even the 23andMe heritage
results didn't align with his background.
When I confronted my mom again, she finally admitted the truth.
She told me that when she and mydad struggled to conceive, they
use mixed sperm from a donor andmy dad to increase their
chances. She never knew what sperm had

(27:14):
taken. The man I called my father
passed away when I was 19, so I'll never know his feelings on
the matter. But it turns out my biological
father is still alive, which is completely surreal.
Even more shocking, I now know Ihave 18 half siblings scattered
around the world. 19 if you include my younger sister, who I
always thought was my full sibling.

(27:35):
I'm still processing all of this.
It feels like nothing has changed, but at the same time,
everything has. Story 18 as my mother told it.
My great great grandfather came from a family of some substance
in rural West Virginia. He was well educated and for a
time worked as a schoolmaster. He fell in love with one of his
students, a girl much younger than him.

(27:56):
She was about 15 years old and they married.
His family disapproved of the union, partly because she came
from a much poorer background and perhaps because of her
character, as later events LED relatives to describe her as
having an evil streak. As a result of the marriage, my
great great grandfather was disinherited and became poor,

(28:17):
though he did own farmland. At some point his brothers and
father conspired against him, possibly through fraud or
scheming, and had him involuntarily committed to an
insane asylum. He quickly became I'll there and
died. He is buried on the asylum
grounds and I've seen his grave in the records of his
commitment, so I know this much is true.
The rest comes from family stories.

(28:38):
After his confinement or death, his young wife abandoned their
four children. The oldest was Robert, my great
grandfather, and the youngest, Jack, was just an infant.
She left them on the family farmand vanished.
Family memory portrays her as heartlessly evil, but I can't
help but wonder if her actions were more about panic, despair,
or an attempt to escape an unbearable situation.

(29:01):
She was in her early 20s, far from her own family, on a farm
she likely couldn't manage alonewith four children she couldn't
afford to support. Her actions were wrong, no
doubt, but they may not have been as cold as the family
remembers. The children lived alone on the
farm for some time before a traveling salesman discovered
them and alerted the authorities.

(29:22):
The oldest boy, Robert, was taken in by his mother's family,
but not out of love. They wanted him as a laborer.
His two sisters were adopted by other families and the baby,
Jack, was taken in by relatives on their father's side.
Years passed and Robert grew up.He eventually left home to fight
in World War 2. By this time he had lost contact
with his siblings, but through letters he managed to reconnect

(29:44):
with his oldest sister. During the war, Robert sent much
of his pay to her for safekeeping, trusting her over
their mother's family, who he deeply distrusted.
When the war ended, Robert returned home, reunited with his
sister, and together they set out with his savings to find
their two lost siblings. They were successful in locating
their younger sister and reconnected with her.

(30:06):
Sadly, they learned that Jack, the baby brother, had died years
earlier in a tragic accident. He fell from a horse while
playing polo, broke his neck or back, and passed away.
Robert eventually settled in Ohio.
He bought farmland that my greatuncle still owns, built a house,
now a ruin that we occasionally visit, and raise six children.

(30:27):
His story is one of survival, resilience, and the effort to
piece together a family fractured by tragedy.
Story 19. My mom's cousin is actually her
sister. When my grandmother was 16, she
became pregnant. My great grandmother would have
forced her to marry the boy, buthe was Irish Catholic and their
family was Presbyterian. My great grandmother absolutely

(30:49):
forbade the marriage. When my grandmother gave birth,
her married older brother came into the hospital room and
handed her some discharge papersto sign.
Exhausted from childbirth and not reading them carefully, she
signed the papers, which were actually adoption papers.
Her baby was given to her older brother and his wife.
Two years later, when my grandmother's younger sister was

(31:09):
16, she found herself in the exact same situation.
The children born from these pregnancies were raised as
cousins but grew up thinking they were siblings, with no idea
their parents weren't their biological ones.
My grandmother's sister took this secret to her grave, while
my grandmother only recently confessed the truth to the
daughter. She gave up after decades of

(31:31):
standing by silently as her biological children played with
their half sister thinking she was their cousin.
My mom and her siblings found out as teenagers because they
learned that if they got my grandfather drunk, he would
spill family secrets. Story 20 My great grandmother
had an affair with her next doorneighbor in the 1920s and the
result was my grandmother. My grandmother was adopted out

(31:55):
along with a piano and money forballet, piano and elocution
lessons. Meanwhile, the man who was my
great grandfather married someone else and went on to
start one of the largest and most successful companies in the
country. His company is now a household
name listed on the Stock Exchange and he was eventually
knighted. His descendants are well known
public figures with one even being a Dame.

(32:17):
Several books, buildings and places are named after him.
Fast forward to today, my husband does contract work for
another company and it turns outthe owner is my fourth cousin.
We share the same great grandfather.
While the family is incredibly wealthy and influential, we have
no intention of saying anything.I think they'd be horrified to

(32:37):
learn about us as we probably don't fit the image they like to
portray. We still have the Piano Story
21. My grandfather was a World War 2
veteran. He landed in Normandy plus 14 as
a paratrooper, fought his way through Europe and eventually
made it to Berlin. He carried and loaded the
Browning .30 caliber and met theRussians on the river.

(32:59):
After the war he became staunchly anti war, teaching his
children about the horrors he had witnessed.
He eventually became a truck driver, delivering goods across
the country. As part of the job, he had to
join the Teamsters Union. He was deeply opposed to the
corruption within the union and was vocal about it, which didn't
sit well with the union leaders in the 1980s.

(33:20):
My grandfather was found clubbedto death on the side of the
road. His truck was intact, the goods
were untouched, and his wallet still had all its cash.
The police confirmed it was a murder, not a robbery.
My family immediately pointed fingers at the Teamsters,
convinced they were behind his death due to his outspoken
criticism of the union. While there's no hard evidence,

(33:41):
the anecdotal accounts from my family and the lack of any other
explanation leave me convinced. I never got to meet my
grandfather. He died over a decade before I
was born. His story has always felt like a
dark shadow in our family's history.
Story 22. I am the first generation of my
paternal family to be born in the United States.

(34:01):
My father and grandparents fled Italy in late 1944, about six or
seven months before Mussolini met his end.
Until recently, it was assumed that they were the first members
of our family to emigrate. Our family name is quite rare in
Italy, and all of us originate from a small town called
Laquila, which you may remember from the devastating earthquake
in 2009 that made international headlines.

(34:25):
Flashback to 19 O 9. My great uncle, whom we'll call
Herminio, left Lakila to move toChile, claiming he wanted to
take advantage of the gold rush.However, the gold rush had been
in decline for several years by that time, so it's unclear if he
was chasing a dream or intentionally misleading his
family. Herminio kept in touch with
occasional letters for the firstyear or so, but then he

(34:47):
vanished. He was presumed dead.
Fast forward to 1977. My grandfather, while doing
genealogical research, stumbled upon a bank certificate issued
to someone with our rare last name in the United States.
He was baffled. As far as he knew, no family
member had ever been to the US. He wrote letters and made calls
to relatives in Italy, but no one could explain the mystery.

(35:10):
So my grandfather wrote a letterto the account holder addressed
to a small town in Tennessee. A couple of weeks later, he
received a reply from a man we'll call Michael.
Michael claimed to be the son ofa man named Erminio, who had
passed away when Michael was very young.
He mentioned that he and his estranged sibling had lived in
Iowa when they were children, but had later moved to Tennessee

(35:31):
with their mother. Curious, my grandfather
contacted the county seat in Grundy County, Iowa, which
contained a town called Wellsburg.
Sure enough, they found a death record for Erminio.
From there, the story began to unravel, and the details were
astonishing. Arminio had lied about going to
Chile. Instead, he had moved to
Philadelphia, where he was once arrested for fraud.

(35:52):
Charges were dropped. By 1910, he was in Chicago
attempting to become a police officer, but was denied due to
general immorality. In 1911, he made headlines for a
scandalous divorce from a woman we'll call Martha Smith, which
ended with him being run out of town.
In 1916, Erminio somehow became mayor of a small town in

(36:13):
Missouri. However, his term ended abruptly
when it was revealed he had an affair with a married woman, the
daughter-in-law of a state senator.
Destitute and without prospects,he volunteered for service in
World War One. Against the odds, he survived
the war and returned to the US, eventually settling in
Wellsburg, IA. He lived there for several
years, working in uncertain jobsbefore committing suicide

(36:35):
November 1924. In his lifetime, Arminio
fathered 7 children by 4 different women, served in World
War One, was arrested multiple times, briefly held public
office, and managed to live a life full of scandal and chaos,
all while his wife and children in Italy believed he had died in
Chile. Arminio was undoubtedly a

(36:56):
scoundrel, but I can't help but admire his audacity and the
sheer gall it must have taken tolive such a wild and
unconventional life. Story 23 My paternal grandfather
killed his first born daughter when she was just two years old.
The official cause of death was blunt force trauma, but he
claims she fell from her high chair.
The case turned into a landmark trial in California during the

(37:18):
early 1960s. Initially, he confessed to
manslaughter charges, but his admission of guilt was later
thrown out. Due to the circumstances under
which he confessed, it was deemed to have been made under
duress. To this day, nobody truly knows
the full truth. Before her death, there had
already been troubling signs. During a doctor's checkup, he

(37:38):
was blamed for bruises and cigarette burns found on her
body. My grandfather was an abusive
alcoholic for most of his life, which casts an even darker
shadow over the situation. The only solace I can hold on to
is that on his deathbed, he requested a Catholic priest for
a final confession. This was done in privacy, and I
can only hope that he found a way to unburden himself of the

(37:59):
monstrous acts he committed and find some measure of emotional
peace before he passed. It's a complicated legacy to
live with knowing the damage he caused, but also hoping he may
have sought forgiveness in the end.
Story 24. When I was a senior in high
school, a freshman girl walked up to me and said I was her
uncle. I was taken aback and stared at
her. Noticing the resemblance to my

(38:21):
father was uncanny. At the time, I knew of my sister
who was in 8th grade, and my twohalf siblings who were five and
eight years older than me. We all shared my dad's distinct
eyes, and this girl had them too.
I knew there had to be a connection, so I asked her to
meet with me the next day to talk.
That night, I went home and asked my mom if my dad had more

(38:42):
kids I didn't know about. Sure enough, my mom admitted
that my dad had two other children when he was 17 and 18
years old. Apparently, my dad didn't want
us to know about them. My dad has always been a quiet
man who doesn't talk about personal matters, and I suspect
his experiences in Vietnam had alot to do with that.
A few months later I brought it up with him during a car ride.

(39:03):
He wasn't surprised that I had found out and said he thought I
would have figured it out sooner.
He explained that he had left for Vietnam after the half
siblings were born because theirmom wanted nothing to do with
him. After the war, he tried to
reconcile with their mom, but itdidn't work out.
He knew he had grandkids, but wasn't sure how many.
I told him I had met all three of his grandkids for lunch.

(39:24):
He gave me a puzzled look and asked how old they were.
I told him they were three to five years younger than me and
we had even gone to school together.
One of them was part of my youngest sister's circle of
friends. My dad was shocked.
He thought they'd be much younger Then.
As if it couldn't get weirder, my dad said you know that Andrew
you hang around with ask him whohis grandfather is.

(39:48):
Freaking out, I asked Andrew thenext day about his
grandfather's. He named one, but said his mom
refused to tell him about the other.
Long story short, it turned out Andrew was my dad's brother's
grandson. My dad's brother had also been
quite the ladies man and the connections just kept unfolding.
Story 25 My aunt joined a convent at 17, back when nuns

(40:09):
had to buzz their hair to wear their habits.
After some time, she suffered a mental breakdown and had to
leave. My grandmother was furious and
made her walk around without a hat or head covering to publicly
shame her for what she saw as a failure.
When her hair started growing back, my aunt rebelled.
She hooked up with a man and before long she became pregnant

(40:30):
out of wedlock. My grandmother sent her a way to
live on her aunt's farm for the duration of the pregnancy.
Once her son was born, she was forced to give him up for
adoption before being allowed toreturn home.
These two events deeply scarred my aunt and shaped the rest of
her life. Nobody in the family, not even
most of her siblings, knew aboutthe pregnancy until a few years

(40:50):
ago when a cousin mentioned it in passing.
Looking back, so many of her actions and struggles now make
sense. Unfortunately, it's too late to
address or heal the damage done,but understanding her past has
brought some clarity to our family.
Story 26 My aunt on my mom's side got pregnant at 21 in the
late 1980's. The father of her child was a

(41:11):
drunkard, and when she fell intoan emotional crisis, my
grandmother kicked her out of the house.
At the time, my mom, who was older, had recently married,
moved out and given birth to my older sister.
Wanting to help her sister, she offered her a room at our house.
As a nurse, my mom also took care of my aunt's pregnancy
needs, providing supplements andmedical care at home.

(41:32):
However, my mom also kept a stockpile of medications at home
for emergencies, as nurses oftendo.
Early in my aunt's pregnancy, she had several miscarriage
scares with bleeding and other complications.
My mom attributed it to her unstable emotional state and
lack of care during the first trimester.
By the 8th month of her pregnancy, my aunt had found a

(41:52):
new boyfriend and abruptly ran away from our house.
My mom was shocked, but not entirely surprised when she went
to clean out the room my aunt had been staying in.
She found half of her medicationstock in the room, blisters and
bottles, many of them half empty.
Suddenly, everything made sense.The miscarriage scares and the
bleeding hadn't been due to stress or bad luck.

(42:12):
My aunt had been attempting to abort her baby throughout her
pregnancy using the medications my mom had stored at home.
My mom was devastated and felt utterly betrayed.
About a week later, my aunt gavebirth prematurely.
Her son had severely underdeveloped lungs and brain
due to the damage caused by her actions.
He was placed in an incubator but passed away a day later.

(42:33):
My aunt didn't even bother to claim her son's body.
My grandmother, sensing that my aunt would shirk any
responsibility, traveled to the city to claim the baby herself.
Despite being poor, she took outa loan to pay for a small
coffin. She and my mom silently buried
the child, who had no name, no mother, and no acknowledgement
from the woman who had brought him into the world.

(42:55):
My aunt never asked where the baby was buried, never showed
regret, and seemingly moved on without a second thought.
My mom kept a secret for decades.
When I was 23, during a conversation about awful
parenting, she finally broke down and told me she said she
couldn't carry the burden of thestory anymore.
To this day, I think about the child who never had a name, a

(43:16):
mother, or even a chance at life.
It's one of the most painful stories in my family's history.
Story 27. One of my aunts kicked my
maternal grandmother, her mother-in-law, out of their home
in the middle of the night. This happened in the early
1990s. My grandmother had recently
immigrated to America after my grandfather passed away.

(43:37):
She was staying with my mom's oldest brother, who had taken
her in. His wife, my aunt, had never
lived in a joint family system and apparently couldn't handle
it. One night they had an argument.
No one knows the details becausemy aunt has never revealed what
it was about. The argument ended with my aunt
telling my grandmother that she had to leave unless she could
learn her place. My grandmother, being the strong

(43:59):
and proud woman she was, essentially said fine.
She reminded my aunt that she hadn't raised 10 children just
to be treated like trash and walked out of the house that
night. At the time, my grandmother was
over 70 years old, new to the country, had no phone and no way
to contact anyone in the family.She walked nearly 5 miles in the

(44:20):
cold to a pay phone she remembered seeing the week
before, spent her last bit of change to call my mom, and then
sat on the sidewalk in 45° weather waiting for someone to
pick her up. My mom and another brother
rushed to get her and took her in.
She lived with them from that point on.
However, the ordeal had a lasting effect on her health and
emotional well-being. Some of my relatives blame my

(44:42):
aunt for my grandmother's eventual death, believing the
incident contributed to her decline.
Even my aunt's oldest son, who was old enough to remember the
incident, openly criticizes her for what she did.
Her younger children don't know about it, but it's a story that
still haunts the family. Story 28 This story isn't so
much dark as it is a fascinatingfamily history.

(45:05):
My great grandfather GGF had an affair during the Great
Depression. My great grandmother GGM
responded by sending my grandfather and one of his
brothers dressed in their Sundaybest to the mistress's house
with a note that said if you take my husband, you'll have to
take these boys too. It wasn't done out of spite.
GGM simply didn't think she could feed all five of her sons

(45:27):
on her own. After GGM passed away, GGF
married the housekeeper. None of his children ever spoke
to or acknowledged her. Only one person from my
grandfather's family attended his wedding because his brothers
believed he was marrying beneathhimself.
They were plant managers, while my grandmother's father was a
working man. The one person who attended the

(45:48):
wedding, the housekeeper. My grandmother, who had to deal
with being looked down upon by her husband's family, was
fiercely proper about appearances and manners.
She always felt the need to prove herself to them, which my
mother interpreted as judgement.It wasn't until years after her
death that I learned the truth about why she was so particular.

(46:09):
During World War 2, my grandmother worked building
airplanes. She fell in love with a fighter
pilot while my grandfather was deployed overseas.
When my grandfather returned, she confessed her affair and
asked for a divorce so she couldbe with the pilot.
My grandfather, who had been herhigh school sweetheart, asked
her to give him a week to prove they could make their marriage
work. She agreed and at the end of the

(46:30):
week decided to stay with him. A few months later, the pilot
was shot down over Africa. By that point, my grandmother
was almost certainly pregnant with my father.
She mourned the man she loved insilence while keeping up
appearances for her husband's family, who already detested
her. While my mother divorced my
father for good reasons and borehim ill will for his
infidelities and other flaws, her resentment extended to his

(46:53):
family. This gave me a lingering sense
that being part of this family sharing this last name was
somehow a bad thing. Yet for other branches of the
family, bearing this name is a mark of honor.
It's a strange dichotomy, but understanding this history has
given me a more nuanced perspective on who we are.
Story 29 When I was a kid, I genuinely believed I wasn't a

(47:15):
real human. My mom told me I was conceived
by artificial insemination, and my young mind interpreted that
as meaning I was somehow fake. When I was about 13, I overheard
my mom on the phone with my aunt.
She said no, she still doesn't know.
I told her she was artificially inseminated.
Confused, I confronted her aboutit.
That's when the truth came out. She admitted I had a biological

(47:38):
father. After all, she had made-up the
artificial insemination story because she didn't want me
looking for him. She said it would hurt my
adoptive father's feelings. Fast forward to when I turned
18. My biological dad found me on
Facebook. Suddenly my life made sense.
I had always felt like the odd one out in my deeply religious
family, and now I knew why. My biological father was in a

(48:01):
Mexican motorcycle gang. The kicker is that my 4 younger
siblings have no idea I have a different dad.
Family conversations about who inherited what features or
personality traits from whom arealways incredibly awkward for
me. I just sit there silently
laughing at the irony. Story 30.
My sister has been a hardcore drug addict for years, in and

(48:22):
out of jail. She and her equally awful
boyfriend had a child together, my niece.
They were both neglectful and abusive, and drugs were always
part of the picture. One night, early in my
relationship with my girlfriend,we visited my parents house.
My sister had taken my niece outto get the mail, but didn't come
back. For the entire day.

(48:43):
She didn't answer her phone or respond to text.
My parents were sick with worry because my sister had been known
to use drugs around my niece andthere were even instances where
she offered her hero. When she finally returned home
that evening, she was covered intrack marks.
She tried to spin a story about going to the park, but it didn't
add up. My dad, who's a big guy,

(49:04):
completely lost it. He punched her in the face,
leaving her bruised and kicked her out of the house.
My niece was inconsolable, screaming and crying all night
saying she hated my father. What my parents didn't know is
that my girlfriend and I heard everything.
Even though my dad had mellowed out a lot since my childhood and
had worked on himself, that night reminded me of the

(49:26):
difficult times we had growing up.
Part of me doesn't blame him forsnapping.
My sister had made his life a nightmare for years, but hearing
my knees scream and cry like that cut me to my core.
Writing this down is the first time I've really processed it,
and it's both painful and relieving to get it off my
chest. Story 31 There's a pattern of
undiagnosed mental illness amongthe men on my dad's side of the

(49:48):
family, and it's caused a lot ofchaos.
My grandfather seemed fine untilhe retired.
Then he decided he wanted to become a medical doctor despite
having no prior training. When no US school would accept
him, he went to Russia to get his degree.
For years he was mostly absent, studying abroad.
When he returned to the US, he tried to work as a doctor, but

(50:09):
no one would license him due to his age.
Undeterred, he opened an unlicensed clinic and started
diagnosing people. He was arrested, went to jail
and got out, only to do it againand end up back in jail.
Eventually he decided he knew better than lawyers and began
studying to become one on the side.
He started a trucking company. Amongst all this, we discovered

(50:30):
he had another family years ago and a child none of us had ever
met. My grandmother divorced him and
he now has a girlfriend or wife in Asia, though he lies and
tells us he's going to Florida when he visits her.
My dad and uncle inherited his chaotic tendencies, but their
actions were far more damaging. My uncle had five kids with my
aunt, a stay at home mom. He cheated on her repeatedly and

(50:52):
refused to pay child support or alimony.
After their divorce. He constantly harassed her,
showing up uninvited to the house and trying to stay with
her and the kids. He now has multiple children
with other women, none of whom he supports either.
My dad's situation was even worse While I was in college, he
spiraled into paranoia and beganabusing my mom.

(51:12):
He accused her of cheating on him, but it turned out he was
the one being unfaithful. He also developed delusions,
believing that priests, radio hosts, and random strangers were
speaking directly to him and telling him to do things.
He thought people were trying tokill him, poisoning his food,
clothes, and house. My parents eventually divorced

(51:32):
at my dad's request, but he won't leave my mom alone.
He threatens her if she won't remarry him and refuses to pay
child support or alimony for thetwo kids still under 18.
He'd rather go to jail than help.
My daddy's side of the family refuses to address these massive
issues, preferring to keep up appearances of normalcy.
It's exhausting and destructive.My siblings and I are working on

(51:55):
distancing ourselves and building lives away from their
chaos. Story 32 My great uncle had
quite an interesting life, though much of it was hidden
from my family for years. He, along with my grandfather
and three other siblings, were born into a poor coal mining
family in Appalachia in the 1920s, before the Great
Depression. The family relocated to Erie, PA

(52:17):
in search of better opportunities.
Life didn't improve much. They were constantly broke,
often moving apartments in the middle of the night to avoid
paying rent. When World War 2 broke out, my
great uncles and grandfather allenlisted, possibly lying about
their ages to do so. They fought at Normandy and were
awarded various commendations for their service.
After the war, my grandfather and his oldest brother returned

(52:40):
to Erie, but their other brother, my great uncle,
disappeared decades later. After hiring a private
detective, the family tracked him down in San Mateo, CA.
By then, he had been running a smoke shop called Tommy's
Downtown for years. The family reconnected with him
briefly in the late 1970s, but he passed away in the early
1980s. My family never spoke much about

(53:02):
him, except to mention he had money.
Through genealogical research, Ilearned that the smoke shop was
more than it seemed. It was raided multiple times for
illegal gambling operations in the 1970s.
There was even an attempted robbery at the shop during which
my great uncle was shot in the neck.
Incredibly, he managed to walk to a nearby hospital for

(53:23):
treatment and survived. Piercing all of this together
from old newspaper articles in avisit to San Mateo has been
fascinating. I wish I could find someone who
knew him during that time, but most of those people are likely
deceased. My family remains tight lipped
about his life, leaving me to uncover the details on my own.
Story 33. This isn't the darkest family

(53:45):
secret, but it's certainly one of the most chaotic.
My mom's side of the family is unconventional to say the least.
Let's start with the households ground floor where my
grandparents live. Here's the twist.
They're divorced and have been for nearly 25 years.
They don't like each other but still share a house.
Both are heavy smokers and my grandfather is also a heavy

(54:07):
drinker. They argue constantly with him
obsessively turning off lights and heating to save money.
To make things even stranger, mygrandmother's boyfriend also
lives there. They've been together for over
20 years. He's the same age as my
grandparents, divorced, and has a reputation as a covert
psychopath. He's an unregistered Reed
illegal hunter with a house fullof trophies and taxidermy.

(54:31):
He doesn't hunt for food, he kills for fun.
There are rumors that he abused his ex-wife, including dragging
her by her hair down a flight ofstairs.
He's also accused of poisoning neighbors pets, stealing and
sabotaging others belongings. Allegedly he's destroyed my
grandfather's things and starteda physical fight with him, not
to mention hitting my grandmother.

(54:53):
Despite all this, my grandmotherdefends him and brushes off his
behavior. In the basement lives my
grandmothers youngest brother. He's been spoiled his entire
life. When their mother passed, he
inherited all her money, moved in with my grandmother, and has
lived there ever since. He's never worked or had a
partner. After squandering his
inheritance, he began mooching off the rest of the family,

(55:15):
promising to repay loans he's never made good on.
These days, he spends his time watching TV and reading books,
surviving on food handouts. Finally, on the upper floor, my
aunt lives with her boyfriend and my cousin.
Her boyfriend is married, and their relationship began with an
affair about 11 years ago. He eventually told his wife
about it, moved out and started a new life with my aunt.

(55:37):
They're happy and stable, but they haven't divorced because
his job provided apartment belongs to him and a divorce
wood forest his wife to move out.
He has two daughters from his marriage and they often visit my
aunt's place, spending time withher and my cousin.
Despite the complicated arrangement, my aunt, her
boyfriend, and my cousin are wonderful people, and my cousin

(55:58):
and I often hang out and play games together.
It's a tangled web, but somehow they've managed to make it work
in their own unconventional way.Story 34.
This is what I usually call the four year story, though
technically it's longer and could also be titled the little
Brother origin story. There are three of us siblings.
The oldest 2 are only a year anda half apart, and the youngest

(56:20):
came ten years after the oldest,so there's quite an age gap.
Long story short, we moved to a new state and our dad hated it
so much he wanted to leave. My mom got advice from a friend
that the solution to their issues was to have another baby.
Dad wasn't keen on the idea and even suggested she terminate the
pregnancy, but she refused. Once my little brother was born,

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dad spiraled, became a recluse, and eventually left under the
pretense of going to get a dentistry degree.
While Dad was gone, Mom secretlystarted seeing someone else.
When Dad found out, he drove 18 hours straight to beg her to
take him back. He gave her a day to decide.
A day later, when I came home from school, I walked into chaos
and empty noose, hanging Dad wielding a knife and broken

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furniture everywhere. While I was at school, Dad had
attempted to hang himself. When that failed, he went into a
rage, breaking furniture and threatening to hurt himself.
At one point, while saying goodbye to us kids, he turned
his back and mom slipped out to the neighbor wash babysitter's
house and called 911. Dad speed off in his car before
the cops arrived. That night, we were sent to

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shelters and put into therapy. Mom gave us cell phones to stay
in touch with dad, but every time we called he would go on
long angry rants. Eventually, we just stopped
calling. Fast forward four years,
somewhere in that time, mom broke up with the other guy and
one day, seemingly out of nowhere, she decided to let dad
back into our lives. I still don't understand why or

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how she made that decision. I remember the night he returned
because they had very loud S, which was traumatizing to
overhear. Somehow life went back to normal
after that, but whenever I thinkback to those years, something
feels off. I can't shake the feeling that
there's more to why Dad wanted to leave in the first place.
It can't just be because he hated the new state and I don't

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know what motivated Mom to let him back into our lives after
everything.