Post by Once4all on Aug 6, 2010 23:37:29 GMT -5
I haven't been as active as usual the past week, but that is because my week has been quite extraordinary.
I have been reunited this week with literally half of my family whom I have never (never in all 52 years of my life) had any contact with. Three brothers and two sisters. Then of course there are their children and grandchildren, my nieces and nephews. Most of them older than I am.
Actually, they are half-siblings. I have no "full" siblings. Even the two brothers and one sister I grew up with are half-siblings (though I never ever thought of them that way.) My mother was widowed at a fairly young age and later had an affair with a married man. I was the result; she had me when she was 42. Out of the blue last weekend, one of my brothers on my father's side contacted my niece back in New Jersey trying to find me. So, all told, between my mom's kids and my father's kids, I am the youngest of nine! The age differences are great... from me at 52 to my oldest brother (who I haven't met yet) who is 80! Is this incredible, or what? I am so thrilled! I've talked to one brother on the phone and will be meeting him and at least my two "new" sisters next month in North Carolina. I had known all along that some of them existed (but I didn't know there were five of them), but all my life I was always under the impression that they did not know I existed because the identity of my father was always this big family secret. But now one of them has reached out. It is very exciting, although this sudden growth in my family is still a bit surreal to me. They seem like a close and loving family (if not close geographically; they are mostly dispersed along the east coast, from Prince Edward Island to Florida), and a close family is not something I had much experience with growing up.
I have been reunited this week with literally half of my family whom I have never (never in all 52 years of my life) had any contact with. Three brothers and two sisters. Then of course there are their children and grandchildren, my nieces and nephews. Most of them older than I am.
Actually, they are half-siblings. I have no "full" siblings. Even the two brothers and one sister I grew up with are half-siblings (though I never ever thought of them that way.) My mother was widowed at a fairly young age and later had an affair with a married man. I was the result; she had me when she was 42. Out of the blue last weekend, one of my brothers on my father's side contacted my niece back in New Jersey trying to find me. So, all told, between my mom's kids and my father's kids, I am the youngest of nine! The age differences are great... from me at 52 to my oldest brother (who I haven't met yet) who is 80! Is this incredible, or what? I am so thrilled! I've talked to one brother on the phone and will be meeting him and at least my two "new" sisters next month in North Carolina. I had known all along that some of them existed (but I didn't know there were five of them), but all my life I was always under the impression that they did not know I existed because the identity of my father was always this big family secret. But now one of them has reached out. It is very exciting, although this sudden growth in my family is still a bit surreal to me. They seem like a close and loving family (if not close geographically; they are mostly dispersed along the east coast, from Prince Edward Island to Florida), and a close family is not something I had much experience with growing up.
