Secrets

I don’t know why they thought they could get away with it.  Maybe because their true identities were a secret they couldn’t reveal to themselves.

My sister had a baby and my parents told me the baby died.  I developed a story because deep in my heart I didn’t believe the story I had been told.  I believed she had been stolen from the hospital.  Not accurate but the fact that she was alive was not wrong.

My mom believed she was stolen and though not in the manner she imagined, she was not far from the truth of the situation.  Her mom fell into a trap and was given a no-win solution – surrender her child who she could not support financially or be declared an un-fit mother by the Juvenile Court Judge who was in cahoots with the notorious Georgia Tann, known for stealing and selling babies.

Eventually, I confronted my mom with the secret of my sister’s baby and she came clean with me.  Why did they tell a lie instead of the truth ?  I was told it was to spare my adoptive paternal grandparents.

But how could that be true ?  I believe they were the ones who kept me in the family when my own unwed mother conceived me.

Sadly, I’m left to consider the weird disconnect of my parents as parents.  Was the truth actually that they didn’t want to end up financially and physically responsible for my sister’s daughter ?

Nevertheless, my mom’s life was “good” as most lives go and so was the life of my niece.

Secrets tend to out themselves eventually.  My parents had to face the truth when my sister’s son married and invited his half-sister to the wedding.  I know it was an uncomfortable moment for my parents.  Lucky for them that most of the attention was focused on the bride and groom instead.