When she was 68, Carol, who had been given up at birth, found her original birth certificate. For the first time, she learned the name of her birth mother. After some sleuthing on the computer, she found her brother. She called him.

"After a little silence, we conversed for half an hour and agreed to meet on the weekend. I drove to his house which is only 15-20 minutes away from me. I rang the doorbell and his wife answered. I walked in and there was an elderly woman sitting there. She said, 'I'm your Aunt Mary. I was with your mother when she gave you up.'"

Ralph told Carol that after she called him, he called his aunt Mary. She was 13 when Carol was born. He asked Mary what she knew about his mother giving up a baby for adoption.

Carol says, "At first she said she didn't know what he was talking about, but then she thought it was time and told him it was true. She said nobody knew she was pregnant, not even their parents. It seems that it was never discussed again.

"Our mother was 30 when I born. Ralph is two years older than me. Aunt Mary said she had thought about telling Ralph when his mother died but she never did."

Carol says she and Ralph spent several hours "asking and answering questions."

Ralph and aunt Mary were able to clear up a lot of issues for Carol but not all of them. "Ralph said his father was never in the army." To this day, Carol doesn't know who her biological father was.

And there is another mystery no one could resolve. Carol's mother had given her up at birth, but Carol wasn't adopted by the parents she knew until she was about 18 months old.

"There's a gap in my story that will probably never be filled in. I've heard a few stories that make me think a crooked lawyer was involved. Also, I may have been abused or at least neglected or mistreated. Sometimes it's best to leave sleeping dogs lie. I don't think my mother ever knew the real story."

Carol says meeting her brother was "unbelievable," and added, "I always told my son and my grandson that they were the only two people in the world who were my blood. I'm not a religious person but I think it's a miracle of some kind that I found him. Still, I hate that my brother and I missed 68 years of being together because everyone else had to keep a family secret.

"Today, my brother, my sister-in-law and I have become quite close. We talk every day and I see them two or three times a week. My brother is blind and can't drive anymore so I take them shopping and we go out to lunch or just hang out."

We've all heard the saying "When one door closes, another opens." Ralph's "only" sister died in the same year that he found Carol.

Have you been keeping a family secret? Have you told a family secret? Send your tale, along with your questions, problems and rants to cheryllavinrapp@gmail.com. And check out my ebooks, "Dear Cheryl: Advice from Tales from the Front" and "I'll Call You. Not."

Photo credit: at Pixabay