No matter how close one person is to another person, there will always be secrets between the two. Usually, there is a valid reason why they can't expose the truth—perhaps it is so dark and twisted that revealing it would simply ruin the friendship or relationship. Here are some of the most shocking secrets of people's family and friends, exposed.
1. An Unexpected Friend
Apparently, my grandma's dad—my great-grandpa—wasn't the nicest guy to my grandma. He was a mechanic or something and used to work on cars, and my grandma would spend time at his shop. Well, one of the regulars would come in and dote on my grandma. One day, this regular came in and gave my grandma a porcelain doll, one of those nice super fragile ones.
The customer looked at my great grandpa and said, "Whatever happens to that doll, I'll do to you." What gave him the guts to be so menacing to my great-grandpa? Well, it turned out that the customer was none other than Al Capone.
2. A Loner's Act
A notorious loner in my class would always have an MSN Messenger chat window up with one of his friends every time he hooked his computer up to the projector. He would act all embarrassed that we saw his conversations with his friend from another town. He moved here from there, so we assumed he really was staying in touch with his old pals. Until one day we found out the truth.
Once when he was in the library on a computer, I spotted him logged on to his "friend's" MSN accounts...and messaging himself. Sometimes he would speak about the things he and his "friends" did, and ever since I caught him messaging himself, I felt really bad for him. He was a very kind, peculiar kid—not one I'd really be interested in being friends with, but I always treated him nicer after that.
3. A Story Straight From Hollywood
I went to a friend’s funeral about a month ago. He passed young, in his early 30s, and had a wife and three small kids. We were close in school, but only casually kept touch over the years, so I had only met his wife a few times. I got to the funeral and was surprised how well she seemed to be holding it together, but figured everyone handles grief differently.
I offered my condolences, and then ended up chatting with a few other college friends after the service. My friend’s wife came up to the group to let us know that we are invited to go have a drink with her and a few others if we wanted, as her parents were watching her kids for her. I was going to decline until she told us that she had something shocking to share with us.
Apparently, she needed to let us all know what she had found out over the last week while going through my friend’s things. According to her, the reason she wasn't very upset was because my friend had been leading a double life for the past 13+ years! He had always claimed his dad had owned a trucking company and then sold it leaving him really well off, and we believed him.
Based on his spending habits, this all seemed true. He also had claimed his mom passed while we were in school, and that he was an only child. After he left the college I attended during our sophomore year, he would post pictures of Vanderbilt and claimed he transferred there to finish school. All of this seemed to check out.
To add to all this, he also said he got a master's from a different prestigious school. I had worked with him briefly a few years ago in a professional capacity when his company reached out to possibly work with my company, so based on his role there, all of that totally sounded like it could be true. It turned out none of it was.
His mom and sister attended the funeral—the mom all of us, including his wife, thought had passed when he was in college, and the sister none of us knew existed. She had no idea that he'd told people she wasn’t alive. She thought his son and wife eloped, and with her living out of state, my friend would make excuses as to why his wife didn't visit.
My friend had also told us his sister was his cousin, so we were all shocked by that too. My friend even went so far as to show his wife an obituary for his mom when they were dating. His wife had thought the whole time that his actual mom was his aunt, and that his sister was his cousin. And the lies just kept coming—an entire life unraveling before our very eyes.
The school stuff was also all lies. He apparently transferred to an online school and got a bachelor's, but would send us pictures from Vanderbilt's campus. The trucking company his dad owned was real, but actually went bankrupt and was liquidated. The trust fund he told his wife that he set up for the kids doesn't exist.
To make things worse, he had told his wife that he didn't have student loans, but he actually had $78k in loans. He had maxed out multiple credit cards she didn't know existed. And the cherry on top? He was cheating on her with multiple other women. He was taking them for fancy dinners, to the casino, and even getting hotel rooms for them.
Needless to say, his wife was livid, and she was very happy to find out she wasn't the only one my friend had been lying to all these years. The whole thing seriously felt like a movie. I didn't realize stories like this actually happened in real life. I am still sad my friend passed, but I also realize many of us never met the real him. Now the rest of us are doing what we can to help his wife and his kids.
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4. Faking It All
A colleague I'd been friendly with for 5+ years faked having cancer. She shaved her head, did her makeup to make her look sick, and even started using a cane. I'd always bring her meals, wear the solidarity ribbon, and offer to cover for her if she wasn't feeling well and needed to go home. Finally, one of the other faculty members informed me it was all a ruse.
They all knew and had stopped feeding into it years ago, but whenever they confronted her about it, she denied it.
5. A Surprising Windfall
I was asked to help clean out a house that belonged to the dad of a friend of a friend’s. While in his house, we knocked out a weirdly placed wall. Within it tumbled out stacks of banded cash. We counted it up and it was $1.2M in cash. Every single bill was $20. Our best guess is that his dad had a big day gambling, and decided to hide the money from the taxman and his ex-wife.
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6. Canine Cruelty
I went to visit my best friend after we hadn't seen each other for a while. I asked about her smaller dog, who wasn't at the house anymore. Back story about this dog: he was bought as a puppy and when his owner was going through a divorce, he put the dog in a basement. The only interactions he had with people were negative ones, so over time, he became aggressive toward people.
The original owner was putting him down and my friend decided to rescue and rehab him. She had him for a couple of years, and when I went to see her, he wasn't there anymore. So when I asked what happened, I was horrified at her answer. She apparently had gotten upset that he peed on the carpet, and she decided to drive him to a dirt road by the airport to leave him there.
She laughed when she told me that he ran after the car...you know, in a way where you could tell she expected me to find it funny too. I was livid; shaking. I left and never talked to her again.
7. Gospel Of Luke
In fifth grade, at 10 years old, I met two guys, Luke and Peter, with whom I'd become good friends. Fast forward to high school—Luke was dating this girl for most of our senior year. Finally, she broke up with him and several weeks later, Peter started dating her. The day before graduation, Peter got into a physical confrontation with Luke, slamming him to the ground and kicking him in the face hard enough to lift him up.
Luke then attended graduation with concealing makeup and sunglasses. But the truth came out eventually. It turned out that, at some point, Luke got aggressively physical with the girl over a really petty issue. When Peter found out, he confronted Luke and Luke got lippy with him about it. Some relevant background here—Luke grew up with divorced parents and a wealthy father who threw money at him to "make up" for the parental split, basically giving him what he wanted, when he wanted it.
He had a souped-up sports car his senior year that he did street drag racing with. Peter's parents were also split, except his dad severed all ties with him and his mom, and his stepdad was not a good man. Once Peter was old enough and strong enough, he decided he would never put up with that sort of action from anyone, Luke included.
So, his reaction to Luke's actions toward the girl struck a close nerve, especially because it was someone he'd known for so long. He knew Luke before I did. The last I saw of Luke, he was selling vacuum cleaners for "his business." I'm still good friends with Peter, who is now a lawyer and did child advocacy for a number of years.
8. A Real Femme Fatale
My mom and her best friend lived through WWII In their mid-twenties. Post-war, her best friend got involved in some shady black market activities together with a colonel of the French army. They got caught, the colonel got sent back to France, and she got sent behind bars. My mom wasn’t going to let that slide. She decided to do something about it, but her plan was outrageous.
She ended up seducing a prison guard, letting her best friend escape. The best friend hightailed it out of Germany and went to Australia to marry her Jewish boyfriend, who had left Germany when it was still possible. They remained best friends, and after my father retired, they emigrated to Australia. Didn’t find out until recently.
9. For The Figure
This was years ago, but I learned from another classmate that my friend's parents were intentionally starving her for some reason unbeknownst to us at the time. She was naturally tiny so I didn't realize, but then her behavior started to change and I knew that she wasn't being treated right. After a while, the younger sister told us the shocking truth.
Their parents wanted her to be skinny (at 12 freaking years old) to look beautiful for an older guy that they'd arranged to be her husband. I don't really know what became of it seeing as I'm no longer in contact with any of my primary school friends, but I can only hope that she's doing well and that her sister didn't have to follow in her footsteps.
10. His Lips Were Sealed
My mentor had a Ph.D. in Engineering but also had an MBA and a law degree from Harvard. He was the most intelligent and emotionally intelligent person I ever met in three decades in academia. We became very close over the years. He was even the guest of honor at my wedding! We were close, but there was always one thing about him I couldn’t figure out.
Every time we went out to a restaurant in a major city, people would come by and speak to him, often interrupting our meals. On one occasion, someone paid the entire tab without introducing themselves. He wouldn't tell me who these people were or why this happened. One day, I caught a first name from one of the people that gave him a big hug and thanked him for everything.
I looked him up. The person turned out to be an astronaut, and not just some scrub that managed to get on a test crew. This guy legitimately had flown into space. It blew my mind. I asked him to elaborate, but he said it was best to leave things in the past for the benefit of all of us. I trusted him implicitly. He was never dramatic.
After he passed, his family reached out to me. Apparently, over a thousand people wanted to hold an event for him. Try to understand, I knew this man well, but I still had no idea why thousands of people wanted to hold an event for him. I know you're wondering, so I'll tell you. It turned out that these people knew him but they didn't all know one another.
Apparently, my mentor had helped design the U2 spy plane after a successful career in WWII, where his strategy for reconfiguring the limited amount of armor plating available changed the trajectory of the war. He was so paranoid about someone from that era coming back to potentially harm me or his family that he took this accomplishment to the grave.
All these people worked on the U2 project, but were isolated from one another. That is why they knew him, but they didn't know each other. What an incredible life.
11. Karma Comes Back
When I was in the Marine Corps, a guy in my platoon had this young pit bull. She wasn't trained right because he was never home to do it, and when he was home, his way of teaching her was to beat the heck out of her. One day, I saw that the dogs were not there and I asked why. He told me he took her out to the woods and shot her with his .45 because he was sick of her messing up the carpet.
He laughed when he described how he had to shoot her twice because she kept twitching. I was seeing red, and I did what I had to do. I smashed his face as hard as I could. I left and never talked to him again. I found out about three months after I got out that he had passed in an unrelated incident. He apparently choked on his own vomit after passing out while tipsy. Karma, I say.
12. A Painful White Lie
My parents were soulmates, so I never knew why I was an only child. I found out when I turned 18; the day I was born, the doctors found an inoperable brain tumor in my mom. They told her she could live to be 100 or die tomorrow, but could never have another kid. My dad asked what she wanted out of life, and her response was heartbreaking: She requested that her daughter never ever know.
She didn’t want me to grow up scared, but I was the only one kept in the dark. Our town, our friends, our family, everyone but me knew for 18 years. I found out the hard way when I left home for college. My mom passed on the first day I got there. The dorm room phone was ringing the moment my dad and I stepped in with our first load of boxes.
13. In The Nick Of Time
One day in the seventh grade, my friend slipped a note into my locker. It was signed very fancily, and the handwriting was uncharacteristically impeccable. In homeroom, I took it out of my binder to read it. The friend who gave me the note must have seen me open it because he basically tackled people to get it back. I put it in my binder and refused to give it to him until I read it.
When I got home that afternoon, I finally pulled out the note so I could read it in peace. Apparently, my friend's extreme social awkwardness ran a bit deeper than I thought it had, and he talked about how his lack of other very good friends had pushed him to the breaking point. I texted my friend and told him that we could both be awkward together, and really who needs that many friends? He never replied.
One year later, he texted me out of the blue. He wanted to talk about the note. I had given it back to him the day after I read it and completely forgotten about it in my tumultuous eighth-grade year. Apparently, the note was a very subtle clue that he was going to end it all that night. My text was the only thing that stopped him. He said if I had read it an hour later, he'd be gone.
14. The Runaway
This happened during my best friend’s grandfather’s funeral. He had left a letter to be read during the service. For a long time, the family was under the impression he was born an orphan and had no biological family living. That bombshell of a letter quickly revealed the truth and changed how the family saw their grandfather.
The letter detailed how he ran away from home after his wealthy pastor father started extorting people’s money. He saw through the lies being peddled to vulnerable people, changed his name, and went halfway across the country to start a new life. The letter also revealed the names of his brothers and sisters, many of who were still living.
None of the family wanted to reach out to those siblings after they learned about what his father had done. That side of the family continues the practice of extorting people for their hard-earned money. Some are in prison. Some are living off the father’s money in comfort and luxury, having never worked a day in their lives.
15. The Worst Kind
A friend of mine from junior high interacted inappropriately with younger kids at an arts camp. He was sentenced to a juvenile detention center for five years—until we finished high school—and I couldn't look at him the same way again. Obviously, I'm not friends with him anymore, and I have a lower opinion of my high school friends who are still good friends with him. How can you be good friends with someone like that?
16. The Worst Way To Reveal A Secret
This is about an acquaintance of mine. We went to the same high school, and later, when we happened to work at the same place, he gave me rides home because we lived so close to each other. One day, I heard he had a motorbike accident while he was rounding a corner around our neighborhood, and passed from internal injuries.
After listening to speeches at his funeral about what a lovely, wonderful, and loyal son he was, a girlfriend went up to express her dismay at his passing, only for other girlfriends in the crowd to find out right then and there that they weren’t the only one he was dating. It was a dumpster fire. It was a totally unexpected turn of events.
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17. A Bad Read
I went to high school with a guy who turned out to be a child predator. He was wanted by Interpol for human trafficking as well. In school, he was a nice, quiet guy who always showed up for whatever he was involved in. We were in a few clubs together and I never ever picked up on an odd vibe. I feel like I'm pretty good at reading people, but this is the one that completely got by me.
18. Talk About Awkward
When my grandma passed in ‘99, we had to sort through her things. We found a medium-sized box under her bed, and inside it were about 25 antique “personal massagers.” I had no idea that my grandma, who was very strict and a devout southern Baptist, would have such a collection. We quickly showed my mom the box to see what she wanted us to do with them.
My mom was very vanilla and had no idea what they were. She thought they were just normal vibrating massagers. She told us to put the box in the pile with other stuff we assumed was going to be thrown out. Yeah, unbeknownst to us, that pile wasn’t going to be thrown out. My mom had plans for the stuff we had set aside.
About a month or so later, I came home from work and found out my mom was having an out-of-nowhere yard sale. She was deaf, so she excitedly told me in sign language, “I made $50 on that box of grandma’s massagers!” I also found out she sold my vintage bike. That was a bad day. Also, who the heck buys used personal massagers?
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19. The Worst Human
One of the guys in my platoon got married. He's a jerk, of course, and he did it just so he could be allowed to move off base. I'm pretty sure he hit his wife too. Anyway, the whole platoon had a party there, myself included, for his new place. It was pretty cut and dry until three of the guys came back after disappearing for 20 minutes, the new husband included.
He told his very timid and seemingly lonely wife that her kitten ran off and they couldn't catch him. She was devastated, even though she thought he'd probably come back. Fast forward maybe a month. We were sitting in the battalion and it came up in conversation from one of those three guys how funny it was that the "annoying, worthless cat disappeared."
The husband just openly admitted that they ended the kitten's life before they threw it in a dumpster. There were three people involved, and there was nothing I could do about it. The worst part is that I somehow looked like the jerk when I let some of my rage show; as if I was the messed up one for being outraged. As much as I loved the Corps, it really seemed to attract some messed-up individuals.
I don't know about everywhere, but my experience of the infantry mindset is basically "screw everyone and everything that isn't us."
20. A Real Penny Pincher
When my great uncle passed in the late 90s, he had been living in total squalor in an apartment in the Bronx. His wife had really awful dementia, and had passed a year or so earlier. All of our family offered to take him in, but he didn’t want to move. My mom would call him once per week and some of us tried to see him, but he didn’t want to be seen in person.
When we eventually found out that he had passed, his body had been in the apartment for some time. People in hazmat suits had to go in not just because of the decomposing body, but because of how bad the apartment was. Entire boxes full of cockroaches, 40-year-old magazines stacked to the ceiling, the smell of decay and rot, and that sort of thing.
Well, they also found something other than refuse—and it was utterly bizarre. It turned out that despite these atrocious conditions, he had a huge stock portfolio of major companies, all of which had been issued in the 1940s and 1950s. The man was sitting on a very comfortable amount of money—enough to have bought a nice apartment in Manhattan even at the time, in order to live out the rest of his days.
It’s too bad because he was a really lovely guy and we’d have loved to take care of him. We could’ve even used his own money to help him if he wanted to. But such is life, I suppose. My grandfather wound up inheriting it all and eventually distributed it evenly to all of the family about six years later.
21. Out Of Place
In university, I befriended a guy who was into heavy metal music. He was quite different compared to me. I was sporty and on the university football team, while he was big on metal music and substances. He had come from the other side of the country and I could tell he felt quite lonely. He was also just barely surviving financially.
I used to invite him into my room with some of my other friends, and it would always end up with us talking about conspiracy theories until the early hours. When we were going out, I would drag him with me and I would stick a $20 or so in his pocket. I started a cook-off with him in the halls as he wasn't sure how to cook. I gave him a few recipes and he ran with them.
He was a great guy–we liked totally different things, but at the same time, we connected. Anyway, one of these nights, I forced him out because he was looking homesick in his room. He was tipsy and when we were walking home, he made a confession I've never forgotten. He put his arm around me and said: "You know, if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be here right now."
I thought he as referring to him being out and about, so I responded, "I know; you were tough to persuade to come out." He then said, "No, not this; I meant that you saved me so many times and you don't know it." Being confused, I asked what he meant. "Dude, I'm so unhappy here that I've thought about ending it all, only for you to come in and start talking to me."
I was in shock. I remember him looking straight at me as if he didn't just confess his darkest secret. He just smiled and motioned to the takeaway stand, asking if I wanted anything and saying that he was buying. A few weeks later, we broke for Christmas and we all went back to where we came from for the holidays. He rang me and he was in the car with a friend driving back to university to get his stuff.
I remember him sounding so relieved. He thanked me for everything. It was only later that I realized the difference I made, and it messed with my head a little bit. I started thinking about how things might have played out if I didn't initiate all of those times. I sincerely hope he's doing well nowadays and that he's no longer feeling homesick.
22. Never Underestimate Grandpa
A couple of years after my grandma passed, we found out that my grandpa had a long-lost son that my grandpa never knew existed, and that this long-lost son had been adopted 60 something years prior. Grandpa has gotten to meet him a few times. Not long after that story made some headlines, another old man reached out with an unexpected story.
It turned out that he was also my grandpa's son—from yet another woman. At this point, we sat down and asked grandpa how many more kids were out there, and he actually ended up giving us a list of possibilities. We're 90% sure he's got a half Japanese kid, and possibly a half Korean kid from his time in the marines during WWII.
The best part of all of this is they fit right in with the family during family get-togethers. What’s more, my grandma would have absolutely LOVED them, and would have absolutely tried to adopt each and every one of them. She always wanted 15 kids. Grandpa said he didn't want any kids, but now he's glad he has them. All 11 of them.
23. The Momager
I went to school with this one girl in sixth grade. She was very, very skinny and had platinum blond hair. She was super popular, but also a very sweet girl. She wore the shortest shorts and most revealing clothing even before puberty. By the time high school came around, her hair looked terrible. Still platinum blond, but it looked fried; like plastic.
It looked like any second her hair might fall off or something. She was so skinny still, with her bones poking out. She was popular though and always had boyfriends who were allowed to sleep over and stuff. I found out as I became closer to that group that her mom had been bleaching her daughter's hair ever since she was a little girl.
She was naturally a brunette, but her mom wanted a blonde show pony for a daughter. She starved her, criticized her, and got her the skimpy outfits starting in grade school. Her mom was obese as heck and looked like Jabba the Hut with a wig. She was definitely living vicariously through her daughter and wanted her to be blond and skinny to attract male attention.
It was weird as heck. I definitely felt bad for the girl after that and I hope she got away from her horrible mom.
24. When Motherhood Goes Wrong
I discovered that my mother abandoned her eight-year-old daughter at a school when my parents shipped out from England. She then lied about the existence of her and my other half-sister. I also learned that she put my two older biological sisters into orphanages because she didn't want more kids. It’s only thanks to my grandparents that they were reunited with the family.
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25. The Audacity
My cousin was my best friend. She was a year older than me. We loved anime, and we would stay up to binge-watch Inuyasha or other girly shows. She and her brother even lived with us for a couple of years after CPS took them from their mom. She said we would always be friends and that our kids would grow up with each other as we did. But I just found out it was all a lie.
It turned out that she used to touch my little sister inappropriately when they were alone. I found that out last year. My sister begged me not to confront her. What did she have to say about it? "I'm sorry I did that to you, but I can't remember most of it." All those red flags—my little sister trying to switch rooms, the huge personality change she showed after my cousin moved in—all that time, I thought she was jealous.
Now, that cousin is pregnant, and she lies to everyone saying that my family used to take advantage of her and that she had to run away to a better life. The audacity...
26. Speaking the “Bear” Truth
My great-grandfather had not, in fact, been eaten by a bear on Mt. Rainier while he was working as a park ranger. Instead, he’d been cheating on my great-grandmother and was summarily run out of town by her brothers. He moved to Alaska, and nobody knew what had become of him until we located his grave, many decades later.
27. Next Of Kin
There was an accident that killed a guy I knew. His parents were left in absolute devastation over the loss of their healthy son, and it nearly ruined them. The mother went on a brutal downward spiral of drinking and substances, and of course, their other son, who has cerebral palsy and an addiction to pain medication, also went off the rails.
A young girl got knocked up by the guy before he died and she had gone to live across the province with her dad while she had the baby. Ultimately, she gave it up for adoption. Only a small handful of people know, and of course, his parents are not among them. Somewhere out there, his parents have a grandchild they know nothing about, and a kid is out there with the biggest, most loving family you've ever met.
I wonder if he looks like him. The kid would be 18 now and part of me wants to try and find him, but I'd have to give up her secret to do that. It breaks my heart and I'm torn about keeping that knowledge to myself.
28. Down To The Penny
My parents saw me as an investment and kept a secret journal of how much they spent on me my entire life. This included what I got for Christmas, birthday gifts, movie tickets, even when they gave me quarters for the arcade. Even after I got married, they would track anything they gave us: gifts for the kids, things they bought for our house renovations, etc.
Eventually, I found my Mom's diaries and a handwritten ledger with my name on it, detailing everything when we cleaned out her house. She also really didn't like my wife—she repeatedly wrote that I married someone that she felt was from a lower class. She had multiple notebooks detailing what to do when she passed that we found throughout the house. What I found left a pretty bad taste in my mouth.
The notebooks stated that my wife, her family, and her friends were not to enter the house after her passing, nor would they have any of her possessions. Jokes on her, though. It took us six months to clean out their three properties, and guess who showed up to help? My wife and her family helped me to clean out the three properties, which was completely packed with stuff.
They helped me to sell anything that we didn’t want. My family—the ones from my parent’s side—never showed up until the day of the final property auction. It completely changed my entire view of my parents and their love for me.
29. Two-In-One
I had a friend from work who was older than me. We worked on the bar and spent a lot of time together. He had a twin brother who he always wanted me to meet. He used to like to party and would often tell stories of the crazy ones he had been to. At one point, he got me to come along with him to them and we went out to a few wild ones.
He was a friendly, upbeat guy, but he used to change at a second's notice and become unbearably angry and rude. He used to have these mood swings quite regularly and I started to notice that when he was happy, he would refer to his twin brother as the more serious one and when he was angry his brother would be the upbeat and happy one. The twist was coming.
One Christmas, he bought his family in to show them the restaurant we were working at and his brother never came nor existed. He was his twin brother.
30. Hold Your Horses!
My grandad was a farmer his whole life. Every animal loved him—and I do seriously mean every animal. Every time we would go to a new place, dogs would be mysteriously coming straight to him, or horses would cuddle up with him. He just had a charm with them—or so we thought. This illusion was about to be shattered for us.
One day, while cleaning out his closet and digging in his pockets to make sure nothing of value was thrown in the wash, we found grains, bits of dried meats, dog treats, bits of old carrot. Turned out he didn’t have a natural charm with animals at all! The man had simply been secretly bribing animals with food all this time.
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31. State Of Mind
I had a close friend in the eighth grade who clearly had an extremely strained relationship with her mother. Constant fighting, defiance, anger, etc. Any semblance of a bond was simply nonexistent. I always wondered what was up, but, in my youth, I chalked it up to, "Well, we all hate our parents." One day, during a phone conversation—I don't know what topic of conversation proceeded it—her voice began to crack.
She told me: "When I was nine years old, in the summer, my mother told me I was 'out of control' and needed to be helped. She drove me to a hospital, and before dropping me off, told me 'I'll visit you on the weekends.' It was a mental hospital. I stayed there for a few weeks. My father had to do everything in his power to get me out."
I don't remember exactly what I said, except that I was so sorry. Mostly, I just wanted to hug her until she didn't cry anymore. This pops into my head from time to time. We lost touch; I hope life is treating her okay.
32. A Hidden Treasure
Great-Grandma owned a speakeasy in Philadelphia during the Prohibition. She stashed all of her money away in the form of gold. Eventually, she had the gold turned into picture frames that she then painted black and hung around her house. We found out after she passed, when my uncle wondered why the picture frames were so heavy when he took them off the walls for the first time in decades.
I always thought the black picture frames were ugly but never asked about them.
33. Parental Misguidance
I went to high school in a small, affluent suburban town. I knew this one girl—we weren't that close, but we had some mutual friends, so we were occasionally in the same circles. She was quiet, a good student, that type. Years later, she became a public advocate for children who had been sold into trafficking. It turned out that starting from the age of 10, her parents had been forcing her into adult work.
This was apparently going on weeknights after school. It messed me up so bad to imagine what she must have gone through, while still having to go to school and be a great student. It also messed me up to think that it could be happening in my own hometown. But the thing that really messed me up was this. Her parents used the money from this to pay for her to go to college, one of the most prestigious public universities in the US.
They really thought they were helping her. It scarred me for life.
34. A Hidden Life
My great-grandparents lived through the Great Depression. As a result, they had a compulsion to save things that you wouldn’t ordinarily think to save. When they both passed, my mother and grandfather cleaned their house and prepared to sell it. That's when they discovered some life-altering letters. The letters were about another family—one that my grandfather had had before ours.
My mom was able to track them down and we got to know them, and they were all black folks from the Midwest. Apparently, he got into a bar fight and feared he had accidentally offed a man. He left his family and the state and started a new life—as a white man. He was actually able to pass as a darker skinned white man.
It makes sense to me that life was easier for him when he was pretending to be white during an era where people of color faced many difficulties. If you think my family should have guessed, I think the older folks may have suspected. Unfortunately, as this information came out, we also learned who in our family was in denial.
35. Creepy Carl
I had a friend from the sixth grade to the 12th. He was never good with the ladies, and people would always call him creepy. Let's call him Carl. I'd talk to girls and ask them their opinion of him, and they'd call him "Creepy Carl." I assumed he was just a weird sixth-grader and thought nothing of it. Time went on and he had a slew of short-lived relationships that always ended badly.
In my mind, I always thought he had bad luck. Some people are just awful, you know? I thought he was just catching the bad ones. Well, come 12th grade, I started hearing some rumors. Rumors that Carl had taken advantage of one of his exes. So I started asking around; asking the friends of the girl that came out against him. Everything came back to him being guilty.
I started getting distant from my old buddy Carl. I didn't know what to do, and I didn't want to ask him about it. He told me that people were spreading lies about him, but that's also what he said years before that. Well, after I started distancing myself, more words came out. Another girl claimed he was aggressive toward her. At that point, I just looked at all the puzzle pieces in front of me.
Two accusations from two separate girls, many failed relationships where he was never the one at fault (apparently), and never hearing a good thing about him from any girl around. I was disturbed. I'd defended him in middle school, saying that he was just misunderstood. But I ultimately bailed. I just stopped talking to him. True or not, I didn't want to associate with a person that volatile.
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36. When Secrets Come Out
We only found out recently that my grandma’s boyfriend, who was in our lives for at least the first 10 years of my life, had another family. And WE were the “other” family. Apparently, he was married with his own kids and grandkids, who didn’t know about us, but his wife was a chronic drinker, so he tried to avoid her as much as possible. He eventually fell in love with my grandma.
He passed during a cruise with his family, tragically, when we were kids. My grandma had to go to his funeral incognito and sit in the very back. I only found out about all of this because I was asking my mom why we never went to his funeral. It’s really sad too because my grandma has been alone since then, and now has pretty bad dementia.
37. Woe Is Me
I found out that this girl fully just used people. She used other people to her advantage (mostly monetarily, but also emotionally). She'd get with guys she knew liked her and have them buy her expensive things before breaking things off with them. I found out accidentally when she had a little too much to drink one day and she gleefully told me what she'd done while talking smack about all those guys.
She called them stupid, annoying, etc. We'd been best friends for two years at that point and I had no idea she was even capable of doing such things because she'd always treated me well. I cut her off completely and to this day, she still emails me occasionally telling me of her woe-is-me stories. To think that I called her my best friend.
38. It’s Always The One You Least Expect
A family friend, an old man who was one of the most miserly people we all knew. He would make a fuss about everything even when he wasn't the one paying the bill. A month after his passing, around 15 different families showed up. It turned out that he was paying their rents, college tuition, childcare, and what not for them. The man turned out to be a saint.
39. Hidden Red Flags
I knew a guy since my freshman year of high school. We were also roommates for two years in college. He was the nicest guy you could ever meet. But then I found out his dirty secret. Turns, out he was a major trafficker of substances. When he was finally caught, they ended up seizing something like $200,000 dollars worth of cash and pre-paid debit cards.
The entire time I knew him, I had no idea. He drove a 10-year-old car and he still took out student loans, so it wasn't blatantly obvious. It just blew my mind that someone so nice and modest could be into something like that.
40. Hopping On The Gravy Train
My grandmother recently passed. She was famous in our town for her amazing cooking and catering, and her turkey dinners were particularly good. Notably, her gravy was absolutely amazing. So delicious. She had a heart attack several years ago and her experience convinced her to share some of her secret recipes with me, all except for her gravy recipe.
I was confused that she wouldn’t share that particular recipe with me, but soon, the reason why she kept the recipe close to her chest became clear. When she passed this spring, I was going through her pantry and found an entire bucket of KFC gravy mix. She was literally using KFC gravy mix as a base to make her incredible gravy. Huge scandal.
41. Dark Voices
After my grandma passed, we found her old medical files. She had undergone a psych evaluation in the late 70s. It turned out she had schizophrenia. In the transcription of the interview, she talked about demons trying to convince her to do things. And if she ever did anything bad, it was only because the demons told her to.
She was the sweetest, kindest, most loving person I’ve ever met. I knew my mom had a difficult childhood with her, but didn’t really get it until I read that file.
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42. The Bad Kind Of Spy
A friend of mine who I have known for probably 15 years dropped a doozie on his circle of friends. He was a perfectly normal dude. A little shy and quiet growing up, but he did well in school, loved sports, and always came to hang out whenever the group went somewhere. Then he got taken in by the authorities for voyeurism because he was videotaping dudes using the urinals at the college he had recently graduated from.
Everyone, from all his friends to his siblings to his parents, was shocked that such a mild-mannered, normal dude would do that and never even drop a hint. He ended up getting put on house arrest for a year. I visited a few times, tried to be really supportive, and see him through all of this, but shame seems to have gotten the best of him. He doesn't respond to calls or texts and has just kinda faded away.
I've lost touch with him, but his dad is a family friend so I know he's alive and well. He grew up in a really conservative household and I feel like he just grew up so quiet because his true self was being repressed. Maybe he has always been gay and has been too ashamed to come out. Maybe I'm completely wrong. Who knows? All I know is, either way, I'd love him all the same, and I wish he would get in touch.
43. A Dark Family Surprise
My wife's dad passed 10 years ago. Growing up, she had two half-brothers. Her mom had been married twice before she married my wife's dad. Last year, my wife decided to finally go through all the family photos that she had gotten from her parents over the years. For more context, her mom had moved into a memory care unit for dementia a couple of years ago.
She was identifying family members and reaching out to them on Facebook, offering them copies of photos they were in if they wanted them. But there's one picture of her and a boy who appears to be a couple of years older that she can't identify. So, she started asking the various relatives that she contacted. She was in for a surprise.
One of them tells her that he's her half-brother. A half-brother she had no idea that she had until that very moment. Crazier still, it turned out he lived 20 minutes away from us. She found him on Facebook and reached out to him. They spent several days texting back and forth. His mother wanted nothing to do with my wife's dad after they were divorced.
To make things even sadder, his mother didn't want my wife’s dad around his son. Rather than battle her, my wife's dad just stopped seeing his boy. After corresponding for a couple of weeks, he and his son stopped by our house to say hello. We all get along very well. My wife and him text at least weekly as well. We've been out to dinner with them, and are talking about going on a trip together soon.
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44. Quiet Misery
A few weeks ago, one of my close friends told me that he has to make a mental list of reasons not to kill himself every day. As far as I knew, he was completely mentally stable. For all I know, he still is—the way he acts is still very relaxed and he doesn't seem unstable at all. We're also part of a very big group of friends (school band), and he's in a very positive and supporting environment, so I'm not super worried about him.
But it's still something I think about.
45. Should’ve Seen It Coming
I took care of my dad before he passed, and also handled his finances afterward. I eventually found out that my parents were divorced well before I would have been conceived—I’m the youngest of four. That, plus the fact that I have blonde hair and blue eyes and all my siblings have dark hair and brown eyes, pretty much got the ball rolling.
I started to ask my mother and other family members questions. Mom initially denied it, but I was pretty persistent and took things into my own hands by taking a DNA test. After I came back with the DNA results showing that another man was my biological father, she came clean. The conversation we had was interesting.
46. Punching Bag
A guy I knew told me that one of his friends had been taught his whole life to "never hit a woman." This is usually good advice, but it was a living nightmare for him. He got into a relationship were his girlfriend became physically aggressive, and on one occasion, she broke his hand with a frying pan. He refused to defend himself under the "never hit a woman" belief. Then it got worse.
About a year later, there was a physical fight where the girlfriend threw, yet again, a frying pan. It struck his head, cracked his skull, and he hit the floor. Braindead on impact.
47. Pure Motor Madness
My grandma didn't drive. I thought she couldn't, but it was just never discussed. One day when I was maybe seven or eight, I'd been trying to get someone, anyone to drive me to the store for candy. We were visiting my aunt and uncle, and grandma lived with them. They had Bit-O-Honey at the local store, which I could no longer get at home. But no one would take me to the store.
Finally I said I'd just ask grandma, and my cousin chimes in with, "Grandma can't drive." Suddenly, I heard a voice saying: "Oh you bet I can drive. They just don't let me!" Grandma had overheard and she was in high dudgeon! But that's all that was said about it, and my aunt finally took me to the store, so I forgot about it.
Years later, when I'd just gotten my license, I asked my mom what was up with grandma not driving—and the truth finally came out. She explained that during the Prohibition, my grandma boot-legged for moonshiners. She was very successful at it. She was so successful at it that when the moonshiners were finally busted, she got in a ton of legal trouble.
Even though the revenuers never caught my grandma, her license was suspended by the state "to never be reissued." And so, my grandma didn’t drive for the longest time, but it wasn’t like she actually had a choice. Later in life, she was told she could petition for it back, but it came with an admission of guilt or some such. She told them to stuff it.
48. TV Famous
My husband's colleague and good friend of ours was caught on the very first episode of To Catch a Predator. After the episode aired, we thought back and realized we had met with him on the day after he was caught. I remember asking my husband if he was okay because he seemed upset. Little did we know, my husband spoke to him after the episode aired.
The guy "swore" that that was the first time he ever did something like that. We never saw or spoke to him again.
49. Shady Dealings
My mom found out about 10 years ago that her biological father was actually my grandmother’s business partner, who acted as a family friend and whom my mom referred to him as her “uncle.” He passed when she was only seven. She had no reason to be suspicious of anything until my grandfather made a shocking confession.
My supposed biological grandfather confessed a few years before his passing that he had suspicions about whether he was truly her biological father or not. After some research and a DNA test, my mom confirmed it. When she confronted my grandmother about it, my grandmother’s response was, “And it took you this long to figure it out?”
50. Well Done
Back in high school, there was this kid who used to hang out every now and then with my group of friends. I suspected the kid was gay due to his mannerisms and way of talking at times, but you could tell he tried his best to hide it. One day, he walked over to us and I asked to borrow his cell phone to make a call since mine had no battery.
He passed it over without thinking twice. I flipped it open, and what I saw made me gasp. There was a picture of a guy's you-know-what that he had been looking at. I just exited the picture and placed my phone call, but he was obviously horrified at what had just taken place. After the phone call, I handed him back the phone and he promptly left.
The next day, he avoided looking my direction in class and the usually cheerful guy was quiet and withdrawn. He was like that for a day or two and I realized he was scared that I might say something or judge him for what I saw, etc. So I approached him and spoke to him as if nothing had happened and he began acting like his old self soon after. We never spoke about it and I had never said anything to anyone until now.
51. Marriage With A Twist
When I was 16, my mother and I were living in poverty. The lease on our home was coming up and wasn't going to be renewed. The new landlords wanted to make some desperately needed repairs on the house, as it had never once passed a single inspection from the day we moved in. We had nowhere else to go, and things were looking desperate.
Out of the blue, my mother's uncle—my great-uncle—showed up and offered to let us come live with him. He'd been my mother's favorite uncle when she was growing up, but they had lost touch before I was even born. It turned out that he lived only a few short hours away, and was in need of some live-in help, so we figured this was our best bet.
His health was bad and deteriorating. My mother took care of him by driving him to doctor's appointments, helping him after surgeries, and more. For years she did this, and in return, he took care of not only her, but me, and even some friends of mine. He and my mother were the kindest, most generous souls I'd ever met.
For the longest time, I told everyone he was like the father I never had, so I was devastated when he passed right after Chrismas within a week of my 30th birthday. He went into the hospital on my birthday, and less than a week later, he was gone. It was one surgery too many, and he didn't have the strength to pull through.
I stayed with my mother for as long as I could, trying to help her figure out what her next steps would be. He'd had a will that left her everything. His house, his bank accounts, all of it. But the will was gone. No one knew where it went. We searched high and low, but never found it. What I did find, however, made my jaw literally drop.
I discovered a marriage certificate. As it turned out, my mother was married to her uncle and had been for over a decade. You see, he went into the hospital for surgery one day, and in the process, the doctors realized he'd need a second surgery. Instead of keeping him under, they had to let him come out of it and become coherent enough to consent to the second surgery.
As his niece, my mother didn't have a say in that, so why not simply make her power of attorney? He had amazing health insurance and retirement. By becoming his wife, she was able to be put on his health insurance. She was getting older and needed healthcare, dental, and vision. She was also the beneficiary of his life insurance, as well as his social security and veteran's benefits.
I was never able to call him my step-father in life, because I never knew. My mother was always afraid I wouldn't understand or that I'd judge. Their relationship wasn't physical. My mother is a CSA survivor, and his health was too poor and his medications too severe for him to be able to do anything of the physical sort.
I understand why they didn't tell me, because even I hesitate to tell other people. It's not a dark secret or anything that I'm ashamed of because I knew the nature of their relationship wasn't like that. But it's definitely something that requires explanation and it's hard to tell if someone’s going to understand it or not.
52. A Smart Guy's Secrets
During my senior year of high school, we had a student teacher in our Government/Economics class. It was interesting because our actual professor didn't care for having them—he told us he hadn't had a student teacher in years, but this guy had all sorts of recommendations and academic achievements. The dude was born a valedictorian. Quiet, a little dorky, but otherwise fine.
He led the class a few times. As the semesters went by, we all got to know him and he was still quiet and dorky, but we all got along well. Cut to the summer after senior year—he popped up in the state newspaper. Apprehended in conjunction with a human trafficking ring (I went to high school in Arizona). Holy heck, you know?
53. I Got Your Back… Not!
This is kind of messed up, but my parents told me my mom had a bad back because I pushed on her spine during birth. This was what I thought all my childhood. I think I was in my teens when my older brother told me my dad pushed my mom during an argument. She fell and had to have surgery. I thought I ruined my moms back my entire childhood and they let me believe it!
54. A Senseless Loss
My friend got a divorce and was living in an apartment by himself. He needed a roommate, so I packed up and moved in with him. I knew he had a kid who had died just a year prior, so I thought he probably felt lonely. One night, we were drinking and he started going on about how he was a jerk and deserved not to live anymore.
I knew what he was talking about, so I grabbed him by the shoulder and told him there was nothing he could have done. He broke down and told me the awful truth about that night. He told me he was playing WoW and the kid wouldn't shut up, so he grabbed him by the mouth and held him until he stopped screaming. The kid was only six months old.
He thought he just passed out, so he went back to playing. A half an hour or so later, he went to check on him and he wasn't breathing. He tried CPR. Nothing. He held his child until the ambulance arrived. He lied to them and to this day, everyone thinks it was a freak accident. I never told anyone before now. It was pretty heavy and he was such a nice guy that it messed up my entire outlook on things.
I'm a father now too, and thinking about it brings up a lot of conflicting emotions. He tried ending himself a year after I moved out. I figured him living with what he had done was punishment enough.
55. Giving It All Up
My dad gave up a 100% paid-for fellowship for a math Ph.D. in order to work and provide for an unanticipated pregnancy—me. He really wanted to teach, and he was a natural. In the 60 years I knew him, he never mentioned the Ph.D. or fellowship opportunity. Not once. I found out by going through his papers after he was gone.
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56. Punishing The Victim
I had a friend that I knew for four years. She was so quiet and sweet, then we all moved to different colleges and I found out she had to drop out of college to live in a sort of mental hospital. Apparently, her uncle had been touching her inappropriately since she was nine and she had tried to kill herself multiple times out of her misery.
The worst part was that she was of a South Asian background and her parents were very traditional (and cruel, it seems), so they refused to see her. They couldn't live with the fact that she had been touched by another man and would apparently never be able to get married. It must suck when your friends care so much more about you than your own parents.
57. For The Love Of Books
I was dsylexic as a kid and my grandpa most likely had some learning disabilities growing up as well, but that didn't stop him from always encouraging me to read. He would read along with me as a kid, and then when I got older, he read books I was assigned in school, and whatever trendy YA novels I was interested in at the time so we could talk about them.
We always went to the bookstore to buy them. When his health was failing he couldn't really read anymore so he asked if he could pass his store credit on to me. He had a lot of books to donate to the bookstore, which meant he got a ton of store credit. And when I say a lot, I mean he read a western a day after he retired and had been donating to the store for 20+ years.
Take the above, and add on him donating all of the favorite books he had kept over the years and you basically get a discount for life. I go in whenever I visit family now and the owner jokes that I’ll never truly be able to use all the credit he had saved up. I didn’t know all this at the time, though. I found out at the store, and my reaction probably shocked the customers there.
I came back from college when my grandpa passed and visited the store to pick up some textbooks I had ordered for the next semester. The gal who owns the store told me about my lifetime discount when I went to pay for them. I don't cry in front of people much, but let me tell you this: I had a full-on ugly cry meltdown in that store.
58. Missed Connection
When I was young, my best friend went to a different school. There was a girl in his class who he was secretly in love with, and he had been for years. She was pretty, athletic, and well-liked, while he (like me) was a bookish nerd. In eighth grade, she passed in a car accident. Occasionally, our schedules would be different and I'd have a day off when he had school.
So I'd visit his school and pretend to be different made-up characters, basically just using a fake name and saying I was from out of town. I knew a few people from my friend's school who didn't know that I lived nearby and saw him all the time. After my friend's crush passed, one of these people, who had been close with the girl, told me that she had a secret to tell me.
It was one she could only tell me because I lived far away and didn't really know anyone involved. She told me that the girl who passed had also been secretly in love with my best friend. It's been almost 20 years now, he's still my best friend, he's married, and I've never told him. I never will.
59. A Sweet Surprise
My great-grandpa on my dad's side lived to be 101. He was the pinnacle of health for his entire life. He ate a very good diet with basically zero sugar, got regular exercise, and had all his mental functions and senses even in his old age. The man was still walking everywhere and taking busses on his own until literally the day he passed.
He passed due to medical complications after a broken hip from a fall when he tripped on some steps. After he was gone, my family went to clear out the house and get everything in order. My dad opened a drawer to find a hidden stash full of chocolate bars and wrappers. The dude was so proud of his health that he felt the need to hide a sweet treat from his own family.
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60. Dangerous Youth
When I was in third grade, I used to hang out with this kid and my parents used to be really weird about it. They always told me to be with an adult and never hang out with him alone. Once, I hung out with him alone and my parents were livid when I told them. We were only friends for about a year as we ended up moving away to a new province.
When I was old enough, my parents told me the reason why they were so cautious—the kid had touched other children. He seemed so normal and we were so young. I have no idea what happened to him or anything.
61. Hoarding The Wealth
I recently found out my biological father made six figures. The cheapskate would give my mom—who at the time was unemployed—$40 or so every two weeks for child support. He was supposed to be giving us a few hundred, and even then, he stopped giving what little child support he was providing when I was like nine or 10.
I mean, when I heard that I was SHOCKED. Especially considering every time it was over, we never ate real food. We usually just had McDonald's or some junk from 7/11. I even remember a time we had it for all three meals! With my mom, even though junk food was all we could really afford to eat, she would try to cook a meal when she could.
62. The Real Reason
I got teased very badly in middle school by a kid. He was the reason for me attempting to take my life. In high school, I came out as gay and nobody really bullied me after that. I was everyone's favorite gay, if you will. My oppressor sat next to me in history class. He was gone often and would tell people he was skipping. He had these bumps on his arm that were fluid-filled and he said they were from a 4-wheeler accident.
I pulled him aside one day and told him I knew he wasn't being truthful. That's because I knew what was really going on. I said, "I know those bumps are from dialysis. I'm here for you. I won't tell anyone else." He broke down and came clean about everything. He needed a kidney and he found out in middle school. That's why he picked on me.
He didn't know how to deal with it. We're really good friends now, but knowing that he was a kid trying to deal with possibly losing his life was crazy.
63. Age Is Only A Number
My Grandma turned out to be 13 or so years older than we thought. She had a reason for lying about her age,though. It turned out she changed her age to hide the fact that she had a first marriage before my Grandpa. In those days, it was undesirable to marry a “pre-married” woman. We thought she was about 85, but it turned out she was 98!
64. Freaky Fiance
I found out that a friend's fiance was on parole for breaking into a stranger's home in the middle of the night and hurting a woman while her young child was asleep in another room. He also took her wallet and jewelry when he left. He had served several years and was on parole when she met him. She knew and she didn't care; it was only an issue because another felon on parole moved in with family in the apartment next to theirs.
She was afraid that her fiance's parole officer would tell them that they had to move, and she liked where they lived.
65. A Love I Never Knew
I lost my dad in April, to really aggressive cancer. He’d gone into remission a year ago, but his quality of life was terrible. He had stage four throat cancer, and they had to do aggressive therapy to shrink the tumor to remove it. He lost his voice, his ability to communicate, and was half his usual size. He couldn’t eat and was fed through a tube.
I hated seeing him this way, but when he told me in February that he had a year left, I desperately wanted him to try to survive. We had a good relationship, but I’m a product of a divorced family, and we never lived together. We didn’t communicate as much as we should have, and I always felt like I was a bit of a burden to him.
Fast forward to his passing. I was traveling to deliver my last letter to him, but I missed him by half an hour. I wanted him to know he was my hero, but I didn't get the chance. Afterward, I randomly remembered that my grandmother had told me he left a box for me. She didn’t know what was in it, but my stepmother and my own mother knew.
They asked if I wanted to know, and I said no, I’ll find out myself. I’m glad I did. He had saved all the cards I’d sent him as a little kid. He saved my mother’s letters to him, talking about me and my life, general updates etc. But what got me was the love between them. She talked about how much she loved him and understood he couldn't handle his life right now.
There were letters asking if he could come back as a better person. My tiny kid handwriting on Father’s Day, and birthdays. I sat and read them alone in a train station and cried because I was never a burden to him. He kept all those moments to show me that although they weren’t together, they both loved me and had love for each other, despite it all.
My stepmother later gave me a box of his things from his office at home. There were pictures of me and him while I was a little baby and all the things I’d made him over the years. A small clay figurine of his guitar, a guitar pick box, a cross-stitch of the Judas Priest logo. All those things made me see that he cherished me as his child.
66. Plot Twist
One of my "friends" came over two weeks ago after being gone for two years. He told us all about how he almost got into trouble because he got tipsy at a house party and was found sleeping in a 14-year-old's bed. There was an investigation and apparently, they found both of them sleeping with their clothes on with separate blankets. They ultimately both denied it so they dropped the case.
He later got tipsy and told my roommate that he actually did sleep with her. We aren't friends anymore.
67. An Ice-Cold Truth
Granny had always been famous for her fantastic iced tea recipe. No one made it like her! But it was kept a family secret, handed down through the generations—or so I thought. After she passed many decades later, we finally found out what the recipe was: one can of frozen iced tea, mixed with one can of frozen lemonade, with added water and lemon slices.
68. A Sudden Goodbye
I had a friend in high school who was a very charming and nice guy. He got great marks, loved sports, and was always involved in extracurriculars. He was very social, good looking, and he had a girlfriend. It's weird how people always say this, but everyone DID like him. He was just an honest, friendly guy. Then came a big shocker.
He ended his life just last year. They found him in his closet. He was 16 years old. I don't think I'll ever forget walking out of the car rental place and getting the call from a friend that he's gone now.
69. Keeping It In The Family
My great-grandfather passed a few years back, and his wife passed just this past year. I found out from my grandma that his wife had moved my grandmother’s inheritance into her name right before he passed. And then, when she followed suit, HER family got all of the money. My grandmother was trying to fight it with lawyers, but wound up giving up.
It was too stressful and painful to deal with. Some people are just awful.
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70. Ugly Duckling
I have this friend who I go to school with. We usually play Counterstrike together and hang out during lunch. He was one of the quiet kids (mainly because he had Asperger's). One day, while having lunch, I noticed this mark around his neck and asked him about it. He said that it was from the time when his mom tried to hurt him because he was too "ugly."
At first, I thought it was a joke, but then some of my other friends asked more about it and he told them that his mom was a psychopath. She's currently locked up. It kind of messed with my head for a while.
71. A Shocking Revelation
I found out that my father was awarded medals for saving fellow shipmates on the U.S.S. Benevolence when it sank. I knew my dad fought in Korea, but he never spoke about it, ever. I found out how high up he was in the Navy at his funeral. They played Taps, gave a gun salute, and they asked my mother for his uniform.
She was given the uniform back the day before the funeral; it had been cleaned and pressed. We received a flag as well, and my mother was saluted. There may have been more, but the day was tragic enough, and it was a shock to see so many naval men there as well. It was like there was a whole different dad who I never knew about.
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72. Second Option
My brother's girlfriend started crying, and I asked why. I wish I never heard her reply. She told me she was only with him so she could spend more time with me because she loved me but never had the courage to ask me out. Essentially, she just settled for my brother. They broke up a few months later. I never got with her, nor did I tell my brother what happened.
73. A Not-So-Holy Event
My aunt, who was a former nun, had left the nunnery after being taken advantage of. Even though she had no discernible income or job after, she managed to accumulate something like 300k by the end of her life. This was the 80s, so it was more like 500 or 600K today. A ton of money, but, due to a shocking turn of events, we would never see a penny of it.
My aunt was going to pay for my college education and my brother's college education, but the Catholic Church swooped in with some legal shenanigans and claimed it was the church's money since she never formally left the church—even though she’d been gone for almost 20 years. I worked to put myself through college. Thanks Jesus!
74. Diplomat Daddy
My friend told me that his dad wasn't really a diplomat. In reality, he was an addict who OD'd and passed. All those years he was "abroad," he was actually six feet under. I know it could happen to anyone, but the guy is so polished, well adjusted, and just awesome. You'd never be able to tell he comes from such a place of hurt. He told me all the messed-up stuff his dad did to his family before he passed.
Apparently, he even broke into their place and took all their valuables to sell for money.
75. Keeping It All Hidden
I learned that my gruff, no-nonsense, former OSS grandpa had an adorably sappy side. Dad found a sizable stack of old photo albums chronicling his and his siblings' childhoods and their day-to-day family life, full of cute captions in my grandfather's distinctive handwriting. There were super sweet captions on all the pictures of Grandma, too.
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76. A Blood-Stained Past
One of my buddies and I were pledging the same fraternity when he dropped a big secret. I knew he was from some country in Africa, but he had been very private about it for the most part. Now I know the real reason why. He had been taken from his village in Uganda when he was very young and forced to watch his family perish.
77. A Guardian Angel
My uncle, in life, seemed just like a nonsensical goofball. He got on my nerves a decent amount, but he was wise, and when he shared that wisdom, I listened. He was a trucker, which eventually cost him his life. My dad, after having lost his dearest brother, then confessed to us that my uncle was secretly there for us all the time.
Not physically, but he was the number one person my dad would go to for consultation regarding me and my sister. He would also provide vast financial support and managed to keep my dad away from his drug problem for years. He was basically the cement that held our family together for so long. All I knew about him was that he was my goofy fun uncle. I miss him a lot.
78. Best Man, Worst Woman
At my wedding reception, the best man's wife got tipsy enough to confess to me that she was in love with my brand-new husband. She confessed that she had been for years, but "the timing was never right" for them to be together. She then rambled on about how maybe, someday, they would both be single at the same time...
79. Some Secrets Shouldn’t Be Kept Secret
One day, my grandpa thought he was having a heart attack. But, being super old school, he decided to sleep it off and not tell anyone, hoping it would go away. He woke up the next morning, still having symptoms, and realized, “Yep, heart attack.” Instead of telling anyone, he decided to drive himself to the hospital. That’s dedication to a secret!
80. The Story Checks Out
"Dude. My dad straight up killed someone once." "Dave, shut up." "No seriously, he told me he did. He dumped his body in the ocean. The authorities questioned him, but they didn't have any evidence." Turns out, his dad did spend some time amount of time behind bars, and Dave talked about all the substances his dad used to do. His story, unfortunately, seems plausible.
81. A Fulfilling Life
At my 92-year-old paternal grandfather's burial, people noticed four women sitting together on a nearby bench. They were chatting happily, not talking to family members, but definitely there for the funeral. It turns out they were his four current mistresses and girlfriends. And they all knew about each other and got on well together.
82. That Night
A girl who was my best friend ended up confessing to me in freshmen year that ever since she was young, her father had touched her inappropriately. I told her to not go back home that day and she could stay at my place for however long she wanted. I explained this to my parents who then called the authorities and let her stay at my place until the officers showed up to bring her in for questioning.
After a few more years of not seeing her, she added me on Facebook and thanked me for everything I did for her. Turns out, she went into foster care and moved in with a family all the way to Ottawa. Pretty sad story, but her life has gotten much better. I just wish I could've done more.
83. A Tough Survivor
Always knew my great-great-uncle Tom was a highly decorated WW2 vet, but no one actually knew what it was he did, as when he returned he refused to speak about it. After he passed, we found his journals which documented the awful things he was subject to. He was a Gordon Highlander, and was often sent on missions where he often ended up the lone survivor.
On his last mission, he was tasked with taking a German-held hill. He and his squad fought for a solid week to reach the top, wiping out all opposition. They held it for a further week, before being reassigned and letting the English Grenadier Guards take over. He was awarded two Victoria crosses for the Gordon Highlander work.
84. Never The Same
The FBI showed up at my best friend's dorm room one day. I overheard them questioning him. He'd been downloading sensitive videos and he told them the details of what he'd search for, etc. Apparently, they'd been tracking his computer for a while. He'd been doing this a long time. It really messed me up. Made me question how I could not have seen it in him, and thus, moving forward, I questioned nearly every decision I ever made. I still have a hard time coping. Feels good to let it out.
85. Living A Double Life
He was an executive VP of sales for a real estate company, so he was on the road about two weeks each month. He had a wife and child here in Florida. When he passed, we found out he had another family in Texas. They were not married, but he still fathered two kids. He lived with them the two weeks each month everyone thought he was away on business.
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86. Blocked Out
One of my first boyfriends was really skittish about trying anything remotely intimate. I figured it was just because I was his first girlfriend and he was nervous. He ended up telling me that he was taken advantage of when he was seven years old at an amusement park. He got separated from his parents and a "nice man" was leading him to get help, or so he thought.
He had been repressing those memories for quite some time, and I guess his new exploration of intimacy triggered him. Despite my recommendation not to, he wound up looking into the official report (or whatever documentation it was)—he was shocked to see what it said. He thought he had just been inappropriately touched, but it turns out, he was the victim of much, much worse.
Blocking out the bad stuff is a real thing, I learned. Hearing that dark secret at 15 years old really got to me. I never told anyone.
87. A Twisted Family Tree
This story is my mother-in-law's. Her father came to my country from Italy in the 30s. He left behind his wife, hoping to bring her over once he's saved up enough money. That never happened, and instead, he married a local woman and had three children with her, one being my mother-in-law. Her father eventually passed in the 70s.
Time passes, and it's the 90s. One day, someone calls speaking Italian. They claim to be her cousins, and found out about her through some other of my countrymen visiting there. She's surprised but happy, since she never had the chance to meet anyone from her father's side. They make plans to visit her as soon as they possibly can.
Her cousins come over, and everyone is getting to know everyone, until she finds out that the "cousins" aren't really her cousins. It turned out that her grandfather had married the wife her father had left behind, and had children with her. So, these people were actually her half-siblings, but also technically her uncles and aunts.
She never knew, and her father hadn't either—I imagine it would’ve been awkward for everyone involved if the secret had come out while her father had been still alive. It was shocking, but she wasn't angry since she never met the man and was happy to gain some new family across the ocean. They still talk on the telephone regularly.
88. Locomotive Bandit
A friend of mine who I hadn't known for long at the time told me to Google his name. When I did, a news article came up saying how he'd stolen thousands of dollars worth of wiring from train tracks, caused nearly half a million dollars worth of damage, and messed with the city's entire public transport system. He was a very interesting dude. I found out a lot of surprising things about him.
89. You Can’t Hide The Truth Forever
My stepmother's family had a story that her grandfather had accidentally offed his sister's husband by pushing him off a staircase when he found the husband beating her. The story goes that the family snuck him off to Italy for a few years until things cooled down, then he came back to America and carried on life as usual.
Recently, someone in the family discovered a 1922 newspaper article regarding the incident that revealed the truth, and it wasn’t pretty. My stepmother’s grandfather actually knifed the dude IN THE HEART when they got into an argument after he got out of a reformatory. Really tells you how “well” those institutions worked out!
90. Staying Close
In high school, while we were tipsy, my friend told me that the little girl she babysits is actually her child that she gave up for adoption a few years ago. I had no idea my good friend, who is a lesbian, had a child at 14. Not to mention a child that I'd met before.
91. A Christmas Miracle
When I was five years old in 1988, Santa Clause left a Nintendo on our front porch. It was wrapped in newspaper, and my parents had no idea who had gifted it to us. My dad, particularly, tried to figure it out. He was always suspicious that it had been a family friend. It was by far the best gift of the year, and we played it all the time throughout our childhood.
My dad later passed in 2004. Last Christmas, my mom explained that she was the one who had bought it and had surreptitiously placed it on the porch. My dad really liked to be in control of things and had forbidden the purchase. She knew better, and wanted to give us an awesome Christmas. She didn't tell a soul for 30 years. Thanks Mom!
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92. The Unknowing Savior
I found out that my friend debated about jumping in front of a car to end herself. She did this every day after school, without fail. She also told me that I was usually the one to stop her whenever I said bye or something. This messed me up for a while.
93. Home Away From Home
Back in 2003, my mom got a letter in the mail about some kind of life insurance policy from a chaplain with a last name we'd never heard of before. My mom did some digging and what she discovered was earth-shattering. This guy was actually her father, except he had a totally different last name than her family's. That wasn’t even the most surprising thing, though.
Supposedly, this man was a catholic priest and had been a chaplain for decades. As in, the kind that's supposed to be celibate. So yeah, it turned out my grandparents met during WWII, and afterward ended up having four kids together. He decided not to stick around and ended up having a whole other life on the east coast.
My grandmother passed a few years before so we were never able to get the full story, but it's kinda wild that there's just a whole other family that no one in our family knew about.
94. Miss Perfect
My childhood best friend's mom was Miss Perfect. She always had the best snacks made for playdates, her house was perfectly neat, her hair perfectly combed, and she was everyone's softball coach, girl scout leader, class mom—everything! My own mom said that when she used to see her when picking us kids up from school, Miss Perfect's breath ALWAYS smelt minty fresh. Like, she was so perfect.
I am in college now and I recently attended her funeral. Turns out, she was a savage drinker. Her breath always smelt minty fresh from mouthwash to cover up the stench of her drink. She literally destroyed herself with her addiction. So sad. Literally what seemed like the perfect woman was actually deteriorating over the span of 10 years. I have no idea what she was going through to this day.
95. A Secret Superhero
My uncle was a POW in WWII. No one really knew anything about it, and he rarely told anyone about it. During his funeral, some random people showed up—about a dozen or so. After a few people spoke up about his humor and what kind of great guy he was, one of the new people got up there and told us a story so heart-wrenching, it's unforgettable.
Apparently, my uncle had saved her life in one of the concentration camps. My uncle was a cook. Apparently, he was a good one. He'd have German officers ask for him to cook for them. He'd use that influence to set free some of the Jewish captives. Another got up and said when that cooking influence started to die down, my uncle took up being a barber. He'd learned to cut hair quite well after a point. So, he'd use that influence to set free more Jewish captives.
All dozen or so spoke about their experience, of how they were saved by this man. We had no idea. Not even his wife. No one knew, except for the survivors. It turned into a true celebration of life. What shocked me the most is how many people existed because of his actions. Hundreds of people now were in the world, that would not have existed if not for him.
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96. The Secret Revealed
One of the funniest guys to be around in high school had a paraplegic brother who was slowly dying throughout our time together. I only found out after we graduated that he even had a brother and that he had passed a few nights before prom. It really put a different perspective on all the memories we had together and the fun times we had.
Who knew that all the while he was quietly dealing with that by himself. Really hit me hard when I found out.
97. A Scandalous Past
One week before my younger sister's wedding, my dad decided to call myself, both my sisters, and my mother—his ex-wife—to meet at his house for something "very important he needed to tell us." We all thought he had cancer or something. We were very worried. Once we were all there, he sobbingly confessed to having a five year old son living in the town next to ours.
The bad news? This meant that the kid was conceived and born while my parents were still married. He claimed he didn't know for sure that the kid was his, and he had only recently gotten a DNA test. He showed us a picture of our half-brother. He looks EXACTLY like my dad. Even though they were already divorced, my mother was devastated.
98. Craving Normalcy
In high school, I had a friend from another school who one day just suddenly passed from leukemia. I didn't even know he was sick, but that's not the worst part. We were actually dating secretly. We had one mutual friend who introduced us in passing and she didn't even know we ended up becoming a thing. A couple of months into it, she came to school and told me his secret.
I checked his Facebook page and it was flooded with comments and messages of people paying respects. At first, I felt betrayed about not being told; then I felt petty. Eventually, I realized that he probably never told me because he liked feeling normal, rather than having some girl treating him like a frail, sickly teenager. I still miss him, though.
99. A “Shameful” Family Secret
My great-grandmother hated me. I was an "illegitimate" child, and my parents split when I was three. When my dad got his girlfriend pregnant, my great-grandmother said that she would cut him out of her life if "He didn't marry this one." My father married my stepmother, who was a single mother, and my great-grandmother was fantastic to my step-brother and my sister, but not me.
She flat-out refused to have anything to do with me. I spent Christmas with the family, but I came home crying to my mum, asking why Grandma wouldn't talk to me. For the entire four days I was there, she ignored me, while cuddling my brother and sister as much as she could, because they lived in another country by then.
I didn't find out any of this until after she passed. I wasn't included in her will—the only grandchild not included out of about 7 grandchildren, and many more great-grandchildren. My dad took some of his inheritance and passed it on to me, along with a few heirlooms, keeping up the pretense that she didn't hate me up into my 30s.
I was so hated by her that I'm only just starting to meet family members, who had no idea I existed. My dad, siblings, and nana were forbidden to speak about me to other family members, so the few who met me when I was a baby had forgotten I existed. I’m 36 now… It’s a long time to be keeping me a secret from the rest of the family.
My sister only told me all of this a few years ago, though she'd known my great-grandmother hated me from when we were kids because she would speak very hatefully about me behind my back. My nana's partner confirmed it a couple months ago, with my mum finally telling me about it the last Christmas I ever saw her.
100. Escaping Home
This girl I knew in high school was on the same rugby team as me. Ever since the spring season started, she began showing up to practice more and more infrequently. The coach always told us to stop asking about her and he never said anything against her not showing up, but he was rude to the rest of the other players who skipped or slacked off.
Cut to our quarterfinals tournament—she finally showed up, except something was horribly wrong. For one, she was crying. She was still determined to play, though, and played aggressively well against the other teams. I later found out that she lived in a dangerous household and she finally got emancipated that week. Throughout the two years that I had known her, she never gave any indication of anything like that.
As far as I know, no one else knew what was happening either. It came as a total surprise to me and really opened my eyes. It made me wonder for the first time if anyone else I knew was being covertly taken advantage of at home.
Sources: Reddit, ,,
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