Surprise! It's A Family!

You know, I had an entirely different blog post in mind about how I've been employed for a month, but that will be put on hold.

Something happened this week.  Nothing bad, but just sort of overwhelming and amazing.

I guess I can't even start with what happened this week.  It was things that happened years ago that need to be talked about first.

My maternal grandmother and the family she had before she met my grandfather.

Oh yes.

When she was 16, she had a daughter by her then husband.  Several years later, she had a son.  Then another son.  Then things happened, and that life just seemed to disappear.  She met and married my grandfather.  She had other kids.  Her former family was only mentioned vaguely.

Until this week.

On Tuesday, I received a text from my mom.  She said that my cousin had contacted her and told her to check her "other" folder on Facebook messages.  There was a message from a man.  He said that he might be her half-brother.

At first, I was skeptical.  I mean, seriously.  Random guy just contacts you on Facebook and says that.  Who wouldn't be laughing that off as a scam or prank?  Then things were mentioned.  Names were given.  Dates.  What was said clicked with what we knew, or could be verified with records.

Holy shit.  We have a whole other family.

Last night, I started a group with my new found uncle to bring all of the relatives together so we could talk about things and try to piece together a whole lifetime of memories.  Some of the stuff that is being said is hard to listen to, but it is just so completely my grandmother that I know that there is no way it is a hoax.

Then there are the pictures of the aunt/sister we never knew.  She died in 2008.

She looks exactly like my grandmother and my other aunt who died in 2010.  My jaw dropped when I saw the resemblance.

And my heart started hurting.

It's hurting for all these wasted years, for the fact that my grandmother never even told us that, hey!  You guys have other relatives!  It hurts for my new uncles and aunt who were just.....left.  I think I'm also enraged by that fact, and more than a little pissed that my grandmother did that.  I loved her, yes, but there is just no excuse for what happened.  I can only thank whatever cosmic spirit that is out there that they seemed to have had a happy life despite my grandmother being the way she was.  I also have to keep reminding myself that there may be other reasons she had for everything turning out like this.  I know her life and upbringing were not easy.

Still, this is a lot to take in.  This is shit you usually only see on talk shows.  Yet here we are.

I can't even put a permanent ending on this post, because this story is still unraveling.  Just keep all of us in your thoughts (and prayers, if you're so inclined) as we work through everything.