19 Jan 2011

Skeletons in closets

When my mother died and I found her mother's marriage certificate I realised she had been conceived out of wedlock. I was thrilled. It had always seemed such a dull family to be born into.

Things got even better when I got a computer and was able to do a bit more prying into the family cupboard. It seems her mother, my witch of a grandmother, had had her way with a 17 year old boy, since he was 18 when they got married.

A few years after that piquant discovery I received a letter from the half-brother I didn't know I had . He was the result of my 18 year old father's fling with a married woman whilst her husband was fighting for King and Country.

Today I find that my lovable but dotty Aunty Ivy, who in her autumn years swung on the garden gate singing hymns in her nightie, was probably not my father's sister but his cousin!

They might have told me.

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