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50 Times People Found Things They Shouldn’t Have While Clearing Dead People’s Things
Interview
Few families have no secrets, but some members are better at keeping them than others. Some take said secrets to the grave, but what they leave behind might be enough for the information to come out.
Members of the ‘Ask Reddit’ community recently discussed such information after u/WhoAllIll asked them what secrets were revealed when cleaning out the home of a deceased family member. Netizens shared stories covering all sorts of scenarios, ranging from bizarre to hilarious and even shocking. Scroll down to find them on the list below and see for yourself why some people kept their lips sealed until the end of their days.
Below you will also find insight on family secrets shared by the author of 'The Secret Life of Secrets', Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Associate Professor of Leadership and Ethics at Columbia Business School, Michael Slepian, as well as thoughts from the OP, who answered a few of our questions in a recent interview.
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#1
this isn't 'cleaning out their home', but when my husband died a few years ago i found several notes/letters he had scattered in various places around our home, written to me in advance (he had terminal cancer & knew he was dying). some were marked 'open when you can't stop crying' 'open when the holidays are too rough' 'open when you have to put one of the cats to sleep'.
they didn't contain any secrets but they are heartbreakingly beautiful.
Kat-Renee Kittel 2 years ago (edited)
A husband that thought ahead for his wife. There must be onions in my phone 😥
Samantha H 2 years ago
What a lovely and wonderful gesture, deeply touching indeed. Sorry for your loss. xx
Gardener of Weeden 2 years ago
OMG I so wish I had some last thoughts of love from my husband. He was too sick for too long (20 years after stroke) - I don't think he even thought of it. I cherish the last card that I forced him to sign - it is illegible - except I see the "love you" written.
Themoonprincess 2 years ago
Damn onions. I just can't even think of a world without my boyfriend and this is too painful to read.
EJN 2 years ago
You are so very fortunate to have had a husband who thought of you and would continue to do so even after he had passed on. I often wish I had more left from my husband who died but his early dementia made it impossible for him to plan for that.
Tommy DePaul 1 year ago
I recall Reagan's handwritten letter to America after his Alzheimer's diagnosis.
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#2
I'm African American and my husband is white. My father faced a lot of prejudice during his lifetime and I was terrified of telling him that the 'white guy' I'd been on a date or two with I was getting serious with. The first time I brought my now husband home, my dad was courteous but distant. Miraculously, by the second time my father literally gushed all over my husband. Even my siblings were shocked. When we got married, he was beaming. It was odd, but I was just happy my husband had won him over.
My mom died in 2014 and my father in 2021. When my siblings and I went to clean out the house, in his safe along with other important documents, we found letters that my husband had written to my father 24 years before about how he felt about me, how he was serious about his relationship with me, how he was planning to go to law school (he did, he's an attorney now) how he respected that he'd gone through so much in his lifetime, and eventually how he loved me and how with his blessing, he was going to propose. My husband never told me he'd written my father and my father never told me he'd been corresponding with my husband. It was so emotional finding those. I still tear up when I think about it. When I got home, my husband finally showed me the letters my father had written back.
#3
My grandpa died when he was 80 - his wife died 21 years before him she was only 55. He never really got over it.
When we were cleaning up his stuff we found an old simple birthday card written by my grandma for my grandpa a couple months before she died. On the back of the card, there were 21 lines written in pencil. Each year, my grandpa would write on the back of the card the date and the year of his new birthday. With a different small note beside it each year. Like, “miss you terribly this time”, or “you would have liked the weather today”.
All up to his last birthday. Broke my heart. The greatest love I’ve ever witnessed.
PeachPossum 2 years ago
Dang it, they're moving from post to post on this list. I'm running out of tissues.
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P H 2 years ago (edited)
My wife of 28 yrs. passed away from a rare form of liver cancer 11-26-2012. She was 54 I was 47 at the time life as I knew it ended. I'm 58 and have not found anyone. I've resided to the fact I'll be alone the rest of my life. Holidays are always tough. It never goes away. By the time I made it to #7 I was overcome with emotion. I miss her daily. My girl. Please take time to hug the person that you love today. Tell them how much they mean to you.
Tamra 2 years ago
I'm very sorry you lost her. After a marriage that long, I'm sure it's next to impossible to know how to go on without the other person. But we do go on as best we can, I suppose. I hope life gives you something that brings you joy again. And I will take your advice.
Load More Replies... Angrykitten 2 years ago
These are beautiful but Damn 4 in and almost ugly crying lol. Not the panda list for me.
Linda Tisue 2 years ago
My SO is twenty years younger, and is the love of my life. This made me cry. I will have to write letters for him.
smugdruggler 2 years ago
You never get over it, but you have to go through it. It's hard though.
The OP told Bored Panda that they haven’t been in a situation of finding anything shocking about a deceased loved one themselves. The reason they decided to start the thread on such a topic was based more on their own life. “I was going through my own childhood stuff and wondered what picture it would paint of me if someone else was doing it,” they said.
#4
My dad kept a handwritten note in his wallet containing my mom’s old address, phone number, and directions to her house from when they first started dating in the 70s. He had moved it from wallet to wallet over the years. ❤️ He just died this past March and that was one of the first things we found.
Vasana Phong 2 years ago
When I first met my husband and he finally asked me for my number, I wrote it down on a receipt, he kept it all these years in his jacket, unfortunately all the ink written on it disappeared
The Weird American 2 years ago
When my husband died I found 2 things: a napkin I kissed to blot my lipstick 25 years before and a very small picture of us, when we dating, that he had cut out of a much larger picture. The pic used to live in his wallet, now it lives in mine.
MaireC 2 years ago (edited)
My dad carried a small card sized protective pocket with him every day he went to work untilthe day he retired. In it were measurement conversations, a picture of my mother, and the letter he wrote to my grandfather asking for her hand in marriage, on the back of which my grandfather wrote one word (yes) and sent back to him. When he died, I tucked it in his inside pocket. The man couldn't stop losing his wedding ring in work gloves, but that was precious to him
I heart Boo-BI-es 2 years ago
You might want to look into getting it laminated or something to prevent any further deterioration of the paper and ink.
#5
My uncle didn’t die of brain cancer which was communicated to the family. He died of HIV. He was gay, he was madly in love with his partner, and because his immediate family his partner was not allowed in the hospital to say goodbye. I inherited some of my uncle’s things. In it was a large stack of love letters from his partner. They were so in love, and hid it from everyone. It hurts.
The Doom Song 2 years ago
I hope you were able to get the love letters back to his partner. I'm sure he would have appreciated that
James Howell 2 years ago
Yes, we did have our love. We had to hide our grief as well. My Beloved friends and the Love of my life, all had to be tucked away. I live my life for them. Or at least trying to.
Lee 2 years ago (edited)
Same as my dad. He was straight however. He did have a brain tumour though. He knew he was going to die so thought 'to hell with it, I may as well experience heaven on earth before I go.' Well the stupid man, careless and selfish as ever caught and then passed on HIV by starting to use heroin and sharing the SAME needle with other people, including 2 of his cousins. He died when he caught pneumonia when he had AIDs. Don't get me wrong- I can understand having a brain tumour is horrendous but come on Dad, you had FIVE children and the youngest was still literally a baby when you made those stupid decisions. He effectively ended his life far quicker than the brain tumour would have and I'll NEVER forgive him for that.
Vervelende Panda 2 years ago
I feel for you. Sometimes people do strange things with cancer in the brain though...
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Stannous Flouride 2 years ago
This was a major driving force in the marriage equality movement. Victims of HIV/AIDs who had often been shunned by there families had moved away and found loving partners that they stayed with for years. The law did not recognize civil unions the same as marriages in terms of medical decisions so when they or their partner died, they had no say in medical or hospice end-of-life decisions. A distant family, even if they had rejected them, had more rights. Only complete marriage equality ended that.
Vicki Perizzolo 2 years ago
so sad so many people have to live like that because of other peoples beliefs
The redditor shared that they were surprised about how many wholesome responses they received from the online community. That might be because, according to the author of 'The Secret Life of Secrets', Assoc. Prof. Michael Slepian, the most common reason for secrecy is protection.
“By keeping secrets, people often intend to protect their relationships, such as by protecting someone's feelings (not wanting to hurt someone) or by protecting one's reputation in the eyes of others (not wanting to look bad in front of others),” he explained in a recent interview.
#6
Grandpa did drawings of the faces of the people he killed in WW2. Nobody knows why but my grandma said he had a lot of guilt over the things he saw so my guess is he didn't want to forget them or didn't feel like he should be allowed to forget them.
Yvonne Dauwalder Balsiger 2 years ago
Your granddad was obviously a good man. I wish that politicians and leaders could only declare war under the condition that they themselves fight on the front line of said war. I am off to listen to Brothers in Arms by Dire Straits.
Erick L. 2 years ago
Lots of military personnel came back broken from this war. My sympathies to the family.
der sebbl 2 years ago
I refuse to believe that anyone leaves a war without mental scars. Except top brass, since they are sitting around safe and sound and send other to death
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Courtney Christelle 2 years ago
The fact that he was upset about it showed that he was a good person.
#7
Cleaning out my grandpa's apartment we found different pieces of a handgun scattered around. He struggled on and off with depression, and apparently, he did it so that if he was thinking about taking his life, he would have to go find all the parts and give himself time to talk himself out of it.
Roxy222uk 2 years ago (edited)
The way some people cope with life and the world is knowing that they have the means of suicide ready whenever they need it. It gives them strength to carry on. Your grandpa may have been doing the exact same thing, and the fact that he never got to the point of using the gun is actually a positive.
My O My 2 years ago
I'm one of them. I wouldn't say it gives me strength, but rather that it gives me option to end it if it's too much. And that leads me to a lot of "I can do more still"
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Rinso the Red 2 years ago
This is one reason for the current push to get people to use trigger locks. Even that short amount of time necessary to unlock it can give enough pause to not go through with it.
Ashley Brown 2 years ago
I don't have a gun (on purpose) but without getting too personal I've done similar stuff to prevent hurting myself
#8
My brother found giant pickle jars of coins, mostly pennies, in our grandpas garage. Turned it into cash and it was nearly 400 dollars. He took everyone helping clean that day to my grandpas favorite restaurant for dinner. 🥰
Mechanician 2 years ago
Picturing all the old coins being thrown into a bank coin sorting machine, and numismatic rarities being completely lost...!
Javelina Poppers 2 years ago
My dad had passed years earlier and when my mom died I found a carefully disassembled baby crib in the garage. It was hand made by my father and was used by all 6 of us kids. I used it for my daughter and she is now using it for my granddaughter.
Rebekah 2 years ago
My Grandma had a HUGE jar (waist high) that sat next to the fireplace. It was her "spare coins" jar, and she would always toss in her change. After she died, we found 3 more jars in the attic filled with coins. It never occurred to anyone that the jar would get full. The neighbor who would help her move the full jars knew, but the family didn't. We had a huge celebration at her favorite restaurant with jar money.
Joshua David 2 years ago
It was almost like his last gift was getting the family together to celebrate him. Amazing.
Michael Largey 2 years ago
Those who are interested in estates that leave large jars of, eh, matter might read John Barth's classic "The Floating Opera". If you've ever been the executor of an estate, you will appreciate it.
Laurie Ostergaard-Overbey 2 years ago
i also have said jar of coin, it's my 'omg emergency $$'. you would be surprised how quickly coin adds up to be useful. for gas if nothing else....
Michael Slepian suggested that one of the reasons people often want to know someone’s secret is the natural curiosity to learn about the things that are hidden away. “We look at a wrapped gift for us under the Christmas tree, and we can't help but wonder what's inside,” he pointed out.
#9
Nan was rich af. She left 90% of her money to a dog charity. Didn't bother me but my cousins still haven't got over it.
Roger9er 2 years ago (edited)
This is the answer nobody wants to read, but is very true. We say: 'We don't deserve them', well, maybe we really don't, indeed.
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Michael Largey 2 years ago
No one said it wasn't. But we can do better than mere rights if we chose to.
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Ashley Brown 2 years ago
People also don't usually get killed simply for existing...
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TruthoftheHeart 2 years ago
This one honestly bothers me because of the amount of people who donate to animals instead of children and poor people who need help. I like dogs and cats too but not more than I care about another persons wellness.
Jorge Gonzalez 2 years ago
Then become rich af and Ieave your money to the cause you feel is worthy
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sbj 2 years ago
I always wonder when people leave their money to animal charities who actually benefits
XanthippeⓐWulf🇨🇦️️🇬🇧 2 years ago
It honestly depends on the charity & how the will is written. If you do your research and set up a trust with the stipulations that the money cannot be used for payment of wages, it must only be used for supplies, building maintenance, medical treatments, etc. as pertinent to the charity, all usage of funds must be voted on by a committee, and usage of funds are audited annually by a separate firm, you can mostly be assured that your donation will be used the right way. Sadly though, a lot of people just leave money to charties with no provisos &, while there are a lot of great charities out there, sometimes it gets abdorbed into "administrative costs" which could mean anything from paying the needed staff to buying the charity board chairman some hookers and a Lamborghini 🤷♀️
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Lorraine Tilston-Brookes 2 years ago
the only bad things that happen to dog is what us humans do to them, thank you for caring "Nan"
#10
A diary with only a few entries from my uncle who lived alone. One of the entries was about how sad he was to have never met anyone or had children and how lonely he was. Broke my heart.
SCP 4666 2 years ago
You have been downvoted for the crying emoji but I fixed it already 👍
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Bored Templar 2 years ago
Loneliness is actually a result of us being so many. Quantity has ruled over quality
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Bouche and Audi and Shyla, Oh My! 2 years ago
As a shut-in, I can relate. Other than my mother and the friend that drives her here every few months, I see literally no one but my probation officer and my court-ordrted
Lexekon 2 years ago
There are. Sometimes we get lucky and meet someone, but often you really have no control over it. I got lucky when I met my wife.
Load More Replies... Lavern Defazio 2 years ago
As i age as a single person with no children, i have thought of this and i am happy as can be without either a spouse or children. I feel bad for this poor fellow.
Mechanician 2 years ago
You can be awfully lonely in a big family. I have no solution.
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Bonniebluebutler 2 years ago
"Relatives" does not equate to "people who care"
Load More Replies... Joshua David 2 years ago (edited)
That there got me. Imagine your uncle shopping alone and deciding to pass his time writing, of which he revealed his pain and then gave up on. I don't know why but it bricked me hard.
Mint Sauce 2 years ago
Those that are the most lonely, are the least vocal and the least heard. The silence is deafening.
Laurie Ostergaard-Overbey 2 years ago
lesson: dont get so 'busy' with your own life that you exclude others, especially those you know are alone
Amanda Hunter 2 years ago
Guys, if you see someone you like the look of, say something, you never know, she might say yes. The worst thing they can say is no
#11
My dad was in hospice at home for a couple months before he died of lung cancer, and when I went to clean out his house I found that he had already sorted and packed away most of his personal treasures in couple storage bins. It was heartbreaking all over again thinking of him sitting there packing up his own life knowing it was coming to an end.
Jan Rosier 2 years ago
Looks like a healthy, yet sad, way to contemplate over your life. Looks like something I would do.
Ansi 2 years ago (edited)
That's so sad but also something my grandfathers brother did. A few days after his wife died he cleaned out their house (my grandmother always pressed that he "even emptied the ash from the fireplace" so he was REALLY thorough about it). Afterwards he went to their mailbox (they lived a little bit secluded) and shot himself. Him and his wife had their funerals at the same time. When they notified the daughter of her fathers suicide she wasn't surprised. I don't know how I feel about that aspect, that she suspected it coming... Poor granddad, both his brothers killed themselves. [Edit: This was posted under the "cleaned before he died"-post. Or else I wouldn't have written all those details about this suicide. Remember all people suffering from loss are hurting and if you yourself is struggling with mental health and suicide thoughts, there's help to find.]
Roxy222uk 2 years ago
It kinda reads like he took control of what he wanted. It's poignant but his right.
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arthbach 2 years ago
I am healthy, but have been doing similar things. When I died, I want to make it as easy as possible for my husband/children. For me, this means all the paperwork is stored neatly and efficiently. As much c**p is out of the house too, just keeping the stuff we use and love.
Tyranamar Seuss 2 years ago
Older people do this. My grandmother tried to do this- but her dementia was already in progress. I've another friend who's in her 80's. She's always getting rid of things so her kids won't have to. Neither were diagnosed with anything terminal at the time. They just knew they were getting older and didn't want to leave their families with a huge pile of stuff to go through.
DumYum 2 years ago (edited)
My dad has been trying to organize and clean out his house for the past 15 years so I won't have to. However, it looks like he's hardly made a dent. 3 story house with basement filled with books, records, furniture, stuff and art. I told him to not worry and enjoy life. But it weighs on him. He's 87 and just getting rid of half a box of stuff is a triumph for him.
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Lesley Relph 2 years ago
My Dad made sure all his bills and paperwork were up to date and told me where to find everything. After coming home from hospital with cancer he passed away a week later.
Michael Largey 2 years ago
Me, I'll probably spend my finals days leafing through the Bible, looking for loopholes.
Amelia Jade 2 years ago
My mil was in hospice at home as she died of lung cancer. I helped her sort things, and plan her own funeral. Sitting there with her, and having to be strong so I wouldn't break down in front of her was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. But I also cherish those moments.
The expert believes that it’s uncommon for a person to plan to take their secret to their grave; and even though their goal might be to keep a secret forever, sometimes they get discovered nevertheless.
“I've heard multiple stories now of people learning of their parents' secrets after they've passed away. One of the drawbacks of taking a secret to the grave is that there is absolutely no chance for the person who learns the secret to discuss it with the secret keeper.
“I recently learned of a secret my grandmother had been keeping—a family secret that involved me—and I wish she hadn't. She's passed away now, but if I had learned the secret sooner, I could have told her that her concerns were not warranted. I could have made her feel much better about it, if we had the chance to discuss it,” Slepian shared.
#12
My mother and her siblings found a still in my 91 yr old great grandmothers cellar. She always grew a huge potato crop. My little old Polish great-grandmother was making vodka apparently.
David 2 years ago
In Poland, Potato Vodka is also known as Jewish Vodka, no one knows why, but legend is that Jews first were the ones to do it with Potato
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Linda Tisue 2 years ago
Love Poland. If you go try the rowanberry vodka. Got a batch of rowanberry mead bottles for Christmas
Mike Fitzpatrick 2 years ago
Lots of old folks did that in order to run their households and raise their kids. My great grandma did it, she was also the midwife for portions of 2 counties. The old girls did what they had to do. Gives us something to smile about generations out.
#13
Grandmother climbed Mt. Rainier, in WA, in a woolen skirt. Summit and all.
Korean Boi 2 years ago
how is this related to the title?? plz dont downvote me to hell bc I asked a question
Pyla 2 years ago
I think it’s things you find out. There are, as an aside, many photos of women climbing Ranier in skirts. Mostly Edwardian period. Later women wore pants. Still wool.
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Star Anäis 2 years ago
We found out years later after digging through my dad's pictures in his laptop that when my mother was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer, they both went to Switzerland and she made it to the summit on her climb. One of the people she went up with was a doctor and he was amazed how she was able to do this without any oxygen support. I never knew. She kept this to herself. The only thing she was very excited about were the chocolates.
Marcellus II 2 years ago
To be fair, it wasn't as high then as now.. Mt Rainier grows about a mm per year? [OK but climate change means it was colder then, so go grandma!]
Pyla 2 years ago (edited)
You are wrong. Yes it grows, but forces such as freeze/thaw, wind, etc. break down mountains. The height hasn’t change with any significance in millennia
Load More Replies... #14
Found my grandparents wedding certificate, which didn’t match the date everyone else had. Their ‘original’ date was 9 months before my aunt was born. The certificate was dated about 5 months before she was born.
Historyharlot93 2 years ago
In our Grandparents day, and this was the 1940s, having a child out of wedlock was a HUGE deal. It might not be a big deal now, but it could have been the worst thing possible for a woman. Especially back then when women really were dependent on men for a home and stable income to rear children. And if the father didn’t marry you, then you were a skank. That being said, my father, like a LOT of first born babies was “premature” at 7lbs. Grandma went on to have two more successful full term babies after that. 😂
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Dave In MD 2 years ago
For decades my grandmother maintained that my mother was 2 month premature because she was born 7 months after the wedding. A 8lb baby is not premature.
V 2 years ago
Yes, my oldest uncle was '3 months premmie'. Good thing back then wedding dresses tended to be straight cut. Probably because of all the 8lb 'premmie' babies born back then.
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Bonnie Parker 2 years ago
Lmao, my uncle was reading letter from grandma, to grandpa. He was reading the date and said, "now wait... this letter was nov., and mary was born april. Grandma was pregnant before they got married!!!" It was a nice little chuckle. Grandpa was gonna be a minister "until he met grandma" which, knowing the floozy my gpa turned out to be, i dont buy that while story either!
Robert T 2 years ago
Shotgun wedding! When I was digging through our family history, about 5 generations back, we had a Christmas Eve wedding, followed by the birth of their first child only a few months later. At that time, it would have been a big scandal. Compare that to my godson, who was a page boy at his parents wedding. Times have changed.
Michael Largey 2 years ago (edited)
Patti Davis (daughter of Ronald and Nancy Reagan) was born about six and a half months after her parents' wedding. When people asked Nancy "Oh, so Patti was born premature, right?" she would stare them right in the eye and say "No" and walk away.
Mary Kelly 2 years ago
there used to be an old pre-birth control expression about all children taking nine months to be born except the first....
Korrie Broos 2 years ago
It is strange how it is always only the first child that is "born premature" WAHAHAHAHA
“Family secrets are among the most common kinds of secrets, and so it is perfectly normal to have a family secret that others who are outside the family don't know about. Keeping secrets from family members is also highly common,” the author of 'The Secret Life of Secrets' pointed out, adding that family life and relationships tend to get complicated; so does life, in general.
“If learning of a family secret is to drop a major bombshell into the family, it's likely family members will need to cope with the new information. One of the main reasons why our secrets so often hurt us is that we tend to not cope effectively with them, because we try to do it on our own without others' help. Healthy coping comes from discussions with trusted others. Discussing the information with others can make a world of difference.”
#15
That my dad hid money all over the house, not huge amounts mind you, but $60 here, $120 there. Felt like a bit of a scavenger hunt when we were cleaning out his stuff. He was always a bit of a sneakily generous guy, always gave me and my brothers a secret handshake with money tucked in his palm when we’d go back to school after a weekend home, etc, so wouldn’t be surprised if he’d done it intentionally. Made us smile every time we found some, iirc I think the final total was somewhere around $800.
EasyBreezyCataneze 2 years ago
Finding money even if smaller amounts is such a happy event. Brings smile everytime
Ranger Kanootsen 2 years ago
I do this too, but for the purpose of slowing my spending habits. I can't spend it if I don't know where my money actually is.
Mike Fitzpatrick 2 years ago
In 2003 we had "the great blackout" that shut us down for several days, so no atms and such. To fend off any problems like that I keep $ around, just in case.
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Mabelbabel 2 years ago
I put money into my children's coat pockets (they're all teenagers). Not much, maybe £2 here and there, as they all have proper weekly allowances, but they get so excited when they find money that they didn't realise they had. I don't think they've worked it out yet, or if they have, they've kept it quiet so the money keeps on magically appearing!
Awkward lady 2 years ago
My dad hid money everywhere, had to go through all his books to find it!
Sven Grammersdorf 2 years ago
My grandpa did the same thing. He also had a bunch of investments nobody knew about. Tens of thousands of surprise dollars for my grandma. He grew up during the depression.
Justin Pinho 1 year ago
Hehe, old people and their sneaky ways of giving out money, I love it.
Bookworm 2 years ago
My mother says that something like this happened when they cleared out her grandmother's house. As far as anyone could tell, it was a 'lived through the Depression' kind of thing, always wanting to have some extra money stashed somewhere 'safe.' All the grandkids knew because she'd take money out of, like, an old Band-Aid tin to give them, but the adults had no idea there were little money caches all over the house until she died.
#16
My 97 year old uncle had a very decent pot stash and pipe collection.
KnightOwl 2 years ago
My bf's stepdad had 4 massive boxes full of weed hidden under his bed and sofa. After his funeral and wake, a huge group of close family and friends gathered in his house one last time and hotboxed it. We also all left with huge bags of weed that lasted us for months, best funeral ever!
Lee 2 years ago
Haha my uncle legitimately used to live in Amsterdam and was a weed grower! Flying over to visit him during the 90s was so fun, I was still a kid but what a fun and chilled uncle he was. Still is but he's out of that game now he's in his 70s! Still has Bob Marley tapestries hanging up though lol.
#17
My step-grandma had been married 5 more times than she told my grandpa she had been.
He was her 9th husband, not her 4th
Roxy222uk 2 years ago
Nine marriages? Including nine courtships, organising weddings, organising divorces/funerals? How the heck does any human manage all that? Even emotionally it sounds exhausting.
edward young 2 years ago (edited)
Societal prejudice, forcing people to conform to "conservative" ideals. Imagine if all of the opinions of groups like Moms For Liberty were the actual bonafied law. That's what most of society actually was until things began to change (thank god) so rapidly in the 60s—Granted, nine maybe a lot, "maybe." Maybe not though, dunno 🤷♀️ what do i know, i'm an introvert? I'm gonna go for relationship number four, not shack up immediately, and hope that it sticks. My grandpa was married six times, he and my grandma married twice, his second and his sixth marriage. I always figured that back in the day if two people wanted to shack up [and don't even think about just having what we today are allowed to consider normal relationships, if we want, i.e., spending the night together often, without being castigated by all and sundry (and/or run into trouble with the law; heck, prior to the 60s it was often illegal for unmarried couples to rent a hotel room)] they pretty much had to get married—of course depending, social class and status–side of the tracks in other words, family pressure, level of social conservatism in the community or their social circles—even if just to keep their jobs! Same was being having a baby outside of being married could RUIN a woman's life. Could be lot of those marriages were simply done at a courthouse. So no real exhaustion after that, in the best case scenario you just go out for breakfast after with whoever were the friends who attended, and then maybe go home and f**k. Not that there aren't people who go get married again and again today, but it seems a bit less common than it was decades ago?
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Marcellus II 2 years ago
"I'm a great housekeeper. Every time I get a divorce I keep the house" --Zsa Zsa Gabor
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Katie Lutesinger 2 years ago
"She's really quite a nice old lady. You know, she told me she's had four husbands." "What did she do with the bones?"
#18
I found a hidden 38 revolver in my late stepfather’s bookshelf. Every bullet in the gun had the name Steve written in sharpie. No one had ever heard of him.
EasyBreezyCataneze 2 years ago
Maybe one of the bullets met the target. That's why no one has ever heard of him
Todd Goodrich 2 years ago
Revolver, huh? And how many bullets were found? My guess is they only found 5 bullets, not six.
#19
I'm a huge dorkus. Have worked in three comic shops. Have a huge collection. When the gf that would eventually become the wife and I moved into a house together, She flipped her s**t about how many long boxes of comics I had and the space they took up. Sports cards and binders of other non-sports cards... huge Magic the Gathering collection as well. We lived in that house for six years. Me and the son moved out after she passed away. As I was going through the closet my comics and binders of cards where in I found two small boxes that were NOT MINE... I found her collection of Pokémon cards and a full set of Nightmare Before Christmas cards. With her hand written notes on the set list. She had added her small collection of books to mine without me even knowing.
My wife was a secret nerd.
XanthippeⓐWulf🇨🇦️️🇬🇧 2 years ago
I don't understand this. Not in a judgemental way, but more curiously...ok first I'm going to digress and say it seems odd that you would reference your son as "the son" instead of "our son," but ok...mainly though, if "the wife" flipped her s**t about your collection why would she hide her collection? It seems like a hobby you both enjoyed and knew very well the other enjoyed, so why not geek out together? I'm a dork, my partner's a dork and together we are super dorks.
Jenny Mason 2 years ago
I call my son "the boy". For example, when shouting him for dinner I will ask his dad to "please summon the boy", it's just a weird family thing. 🤷🏼♀️
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Bobbo 2 years ago
I’m a lifelong comic book nerd. I always got c**p for it. In my early 20’s, I fell out with collecting thanks to the policies and actions of the comic companies. I sold my entire collection and bought a brand new Ford Mustang with cash. Everybody freaked out. This nerd had the last laugh.
Brian Droste 2 years ago
I thought this was going a different way. I thought that she had sold your collection.
John Murphy 2 years ago
sounds like a horrible relationship. No communication so you didnt even know what your wife liked, "the son", "the gf", "the wife" sounds like one of two options 1) made up for some bored panda points or 2)like you have no idea how to address or treat anyone
#20
After my Grandfather died, I asked my Dad to quietly go through his Dad's bedroom while I took my Grandmother out to lunch. I explained that GrandDad might have racy magazines about, that would be upsetting to GrandMa if she found them. So just, be a good son and save your Mom from that.
When we got back, my Dad was nearly hysterical, half laughing, half barfing, and pulled me into the garage to debrief. Apparently, my Grandfather was exactly the devout Catholic that he had appeared to be. And what my poor father had found in the bedside table was a stack of cheesecake pictures - of his own mother.
Pyla 2 years ago
No, cheesecake refers to photos in a state of undress, in lingerie, etc.
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witchling 2 years ago
My first read thru I thought it was the deceased man's mother!! Not so very funny. Reread thank goodness.
Upstaged75 2 years ago
That's what I thought too - I couldn't figure out why the guy had racy pics of his own mother. Yikes!
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KathyT 2 years ago
It was presumptuous to go behind your grandmother's back like that. It infantilized her, by making a decision without her consent. She may not have wanted anyone to see those personal pictures, and was adult enough to know, or find out, if her husband kept racy magazines.
Mechanician 2 years ago
I didn't think of that and I am glad you did. I agree.
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Ranger Kanootsen 2 years ago
I don't blame him, cheesecake is delicious. I gimme a Blueberry Cheesecake any day.
Robin DJW 2 years ago
When my father died, my brother and I found pornographic stories that my dad had written and hidden from my mom (still living at that time). We laughed like drains. My brother later discovered that he had actually sold some of his stories to Playboy and Hustler. I learned a valuable lesson from all this - that your sexual fantasies (or behaviors) have no relation to how you love and are loved by your closest family and friends (and everyone else, for that matter). Everyone liked my dad, many loved him. My dad was a wonderful man with many dimensions. I loved him so much and to this day, decades later, I miss him terribly.
Jinx (she/her) 2 years ago
what a good man he must have been. I do not look forward to sorting through some of my male family's things after they're gone, because I already know how gross they are alive
#21
Grandfather worked on the Manhattan Project as a master machinist. We didn't know until he passed away in 1993 when we found various specifications and directives written to him by Oppenheimer, Fermi, Teller and General Groves.
We all secretly knew he had thousands of dollars in cash hidden in his house. What we didn't know was how much and that each of us knew of different stashes. The one I knew about had about $9800. While cleaning out his house we discovered a total of $160,000+ . It was a helluva Easter egg hunt.
David Paterson 2 years ago
Wouldn't be allowed. Most of that stuff is still top secret.
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MasonF 2991 2 years ago
Amazing that your grandfather actually met oppenheimer. Maybe use some of the money to watch the film lol
I heart Boo-BI-es 2 years ago
I'm guessing that money is long gone, considering it was found 30 years ago and $160k doesn't go that far, even if OP got to keep it all for themselves.
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Steve Hall 2 years ago
Forget about the papers, the government would be on you like white on rice over that amount of cash. $9999 is legal to have, $10000 is not!
J 2 years ago
No, there is no limit to how much cash you have at home. But if you start depositing or withdrawing over 10k or a series’s of odd transactions, it’s reported to the IRS thanks to our recent Democratic overseers
Load More Replies... #22
My nan had about a platoon's worth of American servicemen photos tucked away...
Cat Palmer 2 years ago
Shortly before my grandmother died she shared a few family secrets with me. One of them was that my very proper great aunt (grandmother's older sister) had three American servicemen 'callers' at the same time during WW2 and it was my grandmother's job, as little sister, to smuggle them out through the back of the house if one turned up while another one was already there!
Samantha H 2 years ago
Paul, my mother used to say about them was 'over paid, over sexed and over here' Hope nan had herself a very good time :)
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MichelleDonut 2 years ago
It's entirely possible that she corresponded with them during the war to be nice. Doesn't mean she ever did anything "naughty" with them. Dance halls and pen pals were common in those days. I'm glad I wasn't alive during WWII, I would've been very tempted to do everything in my power to improve the morale of those handsome men in uniform!
Ron Baza 2 years ago
On an unrelated note, she was buried in a y-shaped coffin. Nobody ever knew why…
Laurie Ostergaard-Overbey 2 years ago
i collect old photos, i will lol at 'reasons' after i'm gone! i just love the old photos!
#23
My dad passed away in 1994 (I was 28). While going through his safe I found some adoption papers. While reading through them I got excited at the prospect I might have a brother out there somewhere (I was raised as an only child) but couldn't understand why my parents never told me that they'd adopted a child but never told me. After rereading them, I realized that they papers were about me. After confronting my family about this turns out everyone - family, close friends, I mean everyone, knew I was adopted. Except me. That was a fun day.
Roger9er 2 years ago (edited)
I think it's better to be very honest about it to one's adopted child. They should tell them when they're young. People want to be protective (though this case might be about something else, you never know), but small children aren't just flexible in their bodies, but also in their minds. They can handle information better than we may think.
Nova Cat 2 years ago
I was adopted at birth and I can't even remember when my parents told me. I have always known I was adopted, which is the proper way to do it. It can be so traumatizing to find out you've been lied to your entire life. I really feel for the OP here :(
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I heart Boo-BI-es 2 years ago
My Dad met me when I was going on 3 years old and legally adopted me when I was 10. He would always say that I was his favorite out of my 2 younger sisters(his bio kids and my 1/2 sisters technically)and I because he chose me. It did really make me feel special, out of all the kids in the world he decided I was the chosen one. I def. Won the lottery of Dads though.
bob cameron 2 years ago
A close relative sent out a notice card to friends and family when she and her husband adopted. The cards read to the effect of " SELECTED, not expcted". The adoptee has always been one of the family.
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Rick Seiden 2 years ago
Both of my cousins were adopted, my sister was adopted and my two nieces were adopted. To me, being adopted doesn't make a difference. It's sad that some people keep it a secret, like it's something to be ashamed of.
Trisec Tebeakesse 2 years ago
Oh, lawdy. We always joke with our son that we bought him instead of a house. Weird, I know - but we're all OK with this, just part of our quirkiness. He's 23 now.
Tommy DePaul 1 year ago
I was bought (adopted). My father kept the cancelled checks he wrote to my birth mother for her living expenses.
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Michael Largey 2 years ago
Being adopted meant that your parents wanted you and picked you out in particular.
Sophia Tabarelli 2 years ago
Me too. Ich bin auch adoptiert, aber ich wusste es von Anfang an. Hej - "Bruder" oder "Schwester"
Bookworm 2 years ago
Bad decisions by the parents... but to be fair, the attitude around these things was probably very different in the 60s. Now people tell their kids from the beginning because we know it's the right thing to do, but also because it's basically inevitable that the kid is going to figure it out on their own. People used to keep these things secret with no way to know that cheap DNA testing was going to come along and reveal things that might have been covered up for multiple generations.
#24
Food from 1970. They died in 2006.
HelluvaHedgehogAlien 2 years ago
Two words that don’t belong together no matter what!
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Hugh Cookson 2 years ago
Don't open it. I made this mistake following the clearing out of my late Mum's freezer only to find that she'd refrozen raw, defrosted fish ; I lost my breakfast and possibly part of my small colon that day.
DumYum 2 years ago
Plus there could be neurotoxins, spores or bacteria in there.
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Pferdchen 2 years ago
When my mother died in 2019, we found a powdered Kool-Aid plastic container with an expiration date of 1903. We're pretty sure it was a typo :-) Unfortunately, my sister had already cut off the wrapper from the container. I did keep a metal 1969 Nabisco Premium Crackers tin.
Historyharlot93 2 years ago
My MIL has spices from the 1970s in her cabinet. They were the more exotic ones that you don’t use a lot. She laughed when we discovered this. She was a military wife and had moved that stuff all over the world for 30+ years, on top of having them in her cabinets another 20!
Kat Lyle 2 years ago
During the 1994 elections in south africa, my grandmother who had been through world war 2 and its aftermath packed up a box of rations and sustainable food and drink because she thought the country was going to go to war.
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Kiss Army 2 years ago
When my husband and I cleared out my in-laws house after they passed, it became a game to see who could find the food with the oldest expiration date. They had moved multiple times and apparently kept moving expired food with them. My son, my husband and I had a crazy scavenger hunt that resulted in some laughs when we needed them. I believe the oldest thing we found was a jar a some kind of spice that expired in the 60's. We joked about selling some of the vintage cake mix, hamburger helper, etc. boxes for old tv shows or movies.
Michael Largey 2 years ago
Wine is food. If you've got a 1970 Dom Perignon on your hands, I think I can help.
LandAhoy 2 years ago
I stayed in a friend's house for a week while he was away, and in his condiment cupboard I found and threw away some half used pickles and spices that were over 10 years out of date. He didn't seem to mind, but perhaps he would have appreciated them staying to become antiques.
Georgie Montague 2 years ago
Hmmmm, thinks to self - better go and see what's lurking at the very-hard-to-get-to bottom of my big chest freezer...
#25
We all knew this one uncle had a second family. We expected drama at the funeral.
No one was expecting his third family to show up. Wife. Three kids. This new family knew the rest of the family by name from pictures. How we are all related, names, hobbies. That was a wildly bizarre experience.
Xenon 2 years ago
How the hell did he pull that off? Two is one thing, but three? Wonder what he did for a living? He had to have had a really well paying job some inheritance to keep three families as well as explain all the absences.
Pyla 2 years ago
Read up on Mrs Wilson. That guy had 4-5 families and was a supposed spy and hack writer (the UK did a tv series, staring his granddaughter)
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Alethea Fletcher 2 years ago
When my sad was dying in hospital, I was there (eldest child by wife #1). Also, my brother by wife #2. Brother by wife #3, who was also with us. We then had the head nurse come in to say that our stepmother was wanting to Also come in.. which confused us all as as far as we knew, our dad had only married three time. Nope. Wife #4 arrives. And then...after he died we discovered wife #5 and another child! It was definitely an interesting time... more fun was discovering that two of my stepmothers were younger than me. One was 5yrs younger than me, the other 15yrs younger. 😬
detective miller's hat 2 years ago
We had an estate case where it turns out the old rich guy had 2 secret families aside from his legal wife and children. Now the 7 kids are all fighting over his estate. So glad we got out of that mess. Lawsuits are still raging onward last I heard.
J 2 years ago (edited)
Found out in the past few years my Dad had a first wife and family while stationed I at White Sands area near the end of WW2 and we have at least one brother we never met. Then find out he was in the actual unit that was tasked with recovering whatever crashed out there. He died in 1980 so can’t ask him about them or if it was really a UAP.
Littlemiss 2 years ago
That man was overly busy. Hopefully he actually divorced his wives instead of simply running away like a family member did in our history.
Laurie Ostergaard-Overbey 2 years ago
so, i would be interested to know, except for the 'legality' of this, what's the diff between 'signing off' through the gov, and just having three families? it's just paper, really. i dont think you are legally required to 'tell' your new wife to be about any previous divorce' or relationships.....
#26
Elderly aunt had a hidden room with staircase to basement area no one knew about. She and her son had a meth lab.
This was in the 90’s in Philly.
Blew us all away.
Nichole Harris 2 years ago
Funnily enough... That doesn't happen as often as you're led to believe....
Load More Replies... PolymathNecromancer 2 years ago
In the meth lab is where I spent most of my days
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Mechanician 2 years ago
I want more information about who knew what and who was cooking, distributing, etc. I guess I am naive enough to want to believe she didn't know...
#27
Not mine, but happened in my old neighbourhood: some old dude died of cancer, his daughter and her boyfriend cleaned out a garage he was renting and found human body parts. The police got involved and it was revealed that the guy was a serial killer who murdered at least five women, though the exact number of his victims is unknown.
Ranger Kanootsen 2 years ago
F*****g imagine that!! I don't think I could live in that house afterward.
Ansi 2 years ago (edited)
The Wikipedia site about the serial killer: (happened in Germany) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manfred_Seel
Laurie Ostergaard-Overbey 2 years ago
now THIS you are supposed to reveal if you are selling the house.....
#28
My parents were getting back together.
Dad died at 50 of a heart attack, mom was devastated. Her health declined rapidly and she died at 49 three months later. I cleaned out both their homes and found calls, texts, and love letters. They wanted to be together again but didn't want to put their kids and grandkids through a reconciliation until they were confident it'd work out.
I knew she'd be devastated, they had been together almost thirty years, but they were two years divorced and casually seeing other people. They seemed to be thriving apart. So it was a shock when the grief was so strong that it took all the life out of her. She died of cancer, but the doctor also diagnosed her with Failure to Thrive brought on by the loss of my dad, and said that it may have been possible for her to live longer and even receive treatment if the Failure to Thrive hadn't taken everything she was before her cancer diagnosis.
The only thing worse than losing my dad was watching my mom live without him, so at the end of the day, I'm grateful she didn't live without him for long. She never would have had peace here again. She found her peace with him on the other side.
Katie Lutesinger 2 years ago
Obviously it's not really the same thing, but I once owned two pet rats who were brothers and had been together all their lives. When one of them died of cancer, his surviving brother just completely lost the will to live. He stopped eating, stopped wanting to interact with anyone, and just sat in a corner staring at nothing for hours on end. He appeared outwardly healthy right up until he suddenly just lay down and died. That was when I came to see that yes, it is possible to die of grief.
Michael Danhauer 2 years ago
Proof enough for me that animals can feel emotion
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Mabelbabel 2 years ago
There is a condition called Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, otherwise known as broken heart syndrome. It can happen as a result of severe emotional trauma, such as grief at the death of a loved one, and can cause sudden death, or cardiac failure.
Paul Pienkowski 2 years ago
My grandpa died the same way. He held on for four years, but in the end he couldn't handle life without grandma.
Mechanician 2 years ago
Photograph of President Carter at his wife's funeral gave me a frisson. He's already gone. His body just doesn't know yet.
Kat Lyle 2 years ago (edited)
Similar but without the reconciliation - my childhood sweetheart grandparents were still married when his heart gave. She pined so much that when the cancer came back, she opted to wait until too late for treatment to "go see my Bill". I'm still choking at this. It was 1994.
I heart Boo-BI-es 2 years ago
This reminds me of my great grandparents, they were married for almost 70 years. My g.grandma passed away in her late 80s, my g.grandpa passed away about 6 weeks, iirc, after grandma did. He was in his early 90's but still relatively healthy, considering. Grandpa literally went crazy after she passed, would hallucinate, talk to her like she was still here, refused to eat or drink and he even tried throwing himself down the stairs. It was awful seeing him like that, constantly crying for his Dottie. ( great grandma's name is Dorothy). He died of a broken heart, which is a legitimate medical condition, it was a little too soon for us family after losing g.grandma just weeks prior, but it wasn't soon enough for g.grandpa. It was nice to know that they were together once again, for eternity.
Eric Sandoval 2 years ago
Reminds me of the old George Jones song "He Stopped Loving Her Today"
#29
My grandmother was secretly using medical marijuana. She asked me to help her get her card, and I took her to the dispensary when she wanted to go. The rest of the family found out when she passed away whn they found some edibles in her nightstand. Miss Her everyday.
XanthippeⓐWulf🇨🇦️️🇬🇧 2 years ago
This reminds me so much of my dad. In the year leading up to his passing, he was gping through chemo/radiation and really having a hard time of it. He wanted to get a script for medical marijuana, but didn't want my mother to know (she knew but never said anything). I ended up taking him to the dispensary. That was our thing at the end, we'd get high as balls and watch old kung fu movies together ❤️
Lavern Defazio 2 years ago
We voted 3 times to legalize it in Arizona. When it passed i thought i was going to be partying. Turns out i use it more for medicinal purposes than partying.
Load More Replies... Lee 2 years ago
If it legitimately helps those suffering in pain then I'm all for it. I'm not a supporter of recreational use simply due to the amount of people that smoke it anywhere they want. I have an incredibly weak disposition due to my illness and I literally vomit if I smell it. Please smoke it in your own home!
Huddo's sister 2 years ago
I would support it being legalised where I live, on the condition that it is never smoked in public. It also makes me vomit and gives me diarrhoea even second hand. I would love it if it wasn't the case, as I have a chronic pain condition that it might otherwise help.
Load More Replies... smugdruggler 2 years ago
It's so ridiculous that such a useful medicine is illegal in so many places. I have a ruptured disk in my lower back (L4/L5) which has prolapsed into my spinal canal causing sciatica. My doctor prescribes me morphine and pregabalin but vaping cannabis is the only thing that really gets rid of the pain. Unfortunately I live in the UK, where it's banned.
Mechanician 2 years ago
Tried them, didn't like them, think quality control needs a lot of work. An eighth of a gummy might send me into panic mind altered state, though a quarter of one did nothing much. You could see the lack of homogeneity in the things, and it was an expensive experiment. Also, doctors can still be very judgemental.
Mechanician 2 years ago
So can just about anyone, but if it's legal, it only makes sense to try it as an alternative to narcotics.
Load More Replies... Suck it Trebek 2 years ago
It's so sad she had to sneak around to get something that helped her in her illness. I wish they would stop punishing us and just legalize it already.
Sophia Tabarelli 2 years ago
Hej, Du - ich kenne Dich nicht, aber ich mag Dir sagen, dass Du großartig bist... DANKE !
#30
We found a box containing an old KKK robe in my grandpas closet after he passed. Apparently my great grandfather (his father) was a member of the Klan. So that’s a fun little snippet of family history we had absolutely no knowledge of. I believe my uncle took the robe and burned it.
The Weird American 2 years ago
Family lore is that my paternal grandfather was a Klansman until my dad needed a bunny costume for the elementary school play in the 1930s.
DumYum 2 years ago
sounds like grandma came up with a way to take care of the outfit.
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Pa Pa Panda 2 years ago
Not that surprising as the KKK had an estimated 3 to 6 million members at it's height.
#31
I, as a joke once, made thong underwear on a merch website with my cats face on them and my signature. The description just said “so you can wear my pussy on your pussy.” My friends found this hilarious and bought them up of course. I got numerous Snapchats of thong photos for a while… We forgot about this for years. My best friend passed away in a motorcycle accident last year. His family called me while cleaning out his house a month or so after… they were wondering why they found thongs with my signature in his closet. I never thought I’d have to explain that one. Luckily, they thought it was incredible and we all shared some good laughs. 😅
#32
Note to self ... sell dragon dildo collection before dying...
Bouche and Audi and Shyla, Oh My! 2 years ago
Why would a human have dildos meant for dragons? It seems to me there would be a serious size difference there.
Kira Okah 2 years ago
Yep. There is a genre of fantasy toys out there. Dragon, tentacle, alien.
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#33
We knew my originally British, naturalized Canadian great-grandmother had been an enthusiastic amateur historian, who had been fascinated by Britain’s war with Napoleon - not for the least reason because she was herself tangentially related to the Duke of Wellington’s family, via a cousin’s marriage to his son’s nephew, or some connection equally obscure and tenuous. What we *didn’t* know is that, likely in preparation for a book she never wrote, as a young woman she had actually interviewed several dozen elderly English, French and Spanish veterans about their experiences during that war - including three actual survivors of Waterloo (two English, one French), and an aide-de-camp to Spanish General Francisco Javier Castaños, at the time he handed the Napoleonic army its very first defeat in the field, and captured nearly 20,000 French troops at the Battle of Bailen (1808). But there it was, stored in a wooden egg crate under her iron-framed bed, among old calendars, untested recipe clippings and copies of *Family Circle* magazine: a manuscript with nearly three hundred pages of transcribed military memoirs - all laid out in three languages (in which she was fluent) in her elegant, Spencerian hand. My parents donated her manuscript to the Imperial War Museum, where no doubt it will never have human eyes laid on it again.
SoozeeQ 2 years ago
What a shame they didn't get it published. It would have been a fascinating read (and possibly, quite lucrative).
Kat-Renee Kittel 2 years ago
I agree. publishing and displaying it at the imperial war museum.
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Elizabeth West 2 years ago
"where no doubt it will never have human eyes laid on it again." The IWM has a research facility, so researchers will be able to access and read the manuscript.
Bryn 2 years ago
And if the finding aids are published online (which most places to) they're discoverable. This line, as an archivist made me mad!
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Sa Ruuu 2 years ago
Idk why someone downvoted you but I gave you an upvote. It really would be interesting to read something like that.
Load More Replies... Lorraine R 2 years ago
I bet it has become a treasured resource for scores of historians, amateur and professional. There are lots of people who do battle re-enactments, either live or with figurines on maps.
#34
A family friend (50s) was moving stuff from his mothers storage locker after she passed,opened a box of documents and inside was his adoption papers HE WAS ADOPTED!!! TURNS OUT his aunt who is significantly younger had a teen pregnancy and to avoid controversy at the time the newly married older sister just adopted him.
Freya the Wanderer 2 years ago
When he was 37, Jack Nicholson learned that the woman he thought was his mother was actually his grandmother - and his actual mother was his 17-years-senior "sister."
Michael Largey 2 years ago
And he didn't learn it from his family. He found out from a newspaper reporter who was interviewing him.
Load More Replies... Laurie Ostergaard-Overbey 2 years ago (edited)
this was more common than you might believe, mostly the baby was just raised by the 'new' family under false pretenses, no papers ever filed, just told everyone they had a baby....
Kerry Borthwick 2 years ago
Found out a aunt wasn't a aunt but one of my dad's younger sisters teen baby which had a twin that got adopted out as my rich snobby nan couldn't bare the scandal of a teen mum as well as them being twins
#35
Mine was confirmation of a wild story. My grandfather served in Korea, for years there was a tall tale about how he won a “house” in Korea, (unsure how to phrase this politely online) that it included the family who owned it and essentially anyone who worked there in a game of poker. That when he returned home, after a few years of receiving letters and small payments my grand mother told him to give the ownership back the the family. I don’t think anyone really believed him when the story was told, over and over again, my grand mother died when I was young so couldn’t ask her if it was true. When he passed away and we were cleaning out the house, we found the letters from the family and the letter from the lawyer gramps used to officially return ownership. My grandpa owned a pleasure house in Korea, is a sentence that’s hard to say.
Thee8thsense 2 years ago
Pleasure is a subjective thing, so maybe saying he owned a bordello is better stated.
Mechanician 2 years ago
My dad won a bar in Singapore, playing Poker while in the Navy, but I don't think he ever got checks. Crazy story.
Guess Undheit 2 years ago
Those women weren't there voluntarily. Even after the Japanese were forced out, unconsenting "comfort women" were forced into sex work well into the 1980s. He was likely involved in sexual slavery.
Steve Hall 2 years ago
I would have been so proud of that, I would have told all my friends over and over again.
#36
That the city paid my mother $2,400 for the wrongful death of my father in 1979.
Kira Okah 2 years ago (edited)
From the OP, he was "[k]illed by a municipal transit vehicle in an accident in which they were at fault". The amount is very much insulting.
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Karen Irion 2 years ago
I've been a claims adjuster for 33 years. Times, laws and venues change. Although today that could be a million plus payout, back then it was not unusual.
LadyPiehole 2 years ago
Damn, that's such a small amount. Adjusted for inflation, it would be about $10,170.
Nikki Gross 2 years ago
My Dad was killed in 1984 due to a faulty forklift and my Mom only got $20,000 from worker's compensation. She was a widow with 6 kids still at home and there was a whole lot of other s**t that was going on at the same time. My Mom was and always will be my hero and she was my best example of a strong woman. God knows she had went through so much in her life already. Mom was born in 1933 had me in 1977, I was a late surprise baby and grew up much differently then all of my friends. I learned so much from her and miss her every single day.
#37
I had a falling out with my father when I was 21. Fast forward 18 years when died, and I found stacks of pictures, notes, and articles about me. My stepmom said he was always proud of me, and didn't know how to say he was sorry.
SoozeeQ 2 years ago
What a shame she didn't try to reach out to OP for a reconciliation on behalf of her husband. If OP was willing to meet him halfway, there may not have been all those sad, wasted years.
for ducks sake 2 years ago
Maybe she did. Not a lot of info here. And in the end...the responsibility lies with the father.
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FABULOUS1 2 years ago
Me and my sister had a falling out before she passed, never got to say we are sorry. Biggest regret of my life. My other sister has never really liked me even as kids, I still make sure to always reach out even when I know the correspondence will be brief, I never want to leave things the way they got left with my sister who passed.
Vicki Perizzolo 2 years ago
so many men think pride is more important than sucking it up and saying 'I'm sorry'.
#38
Cleaning out my grandparent's house after they passed away... We found a booklet on sexual anatomy, a penis eraser, a penis that my grandma had crocheted and there were walnuts in the "nut sack", and a drawing my grandpa did of my grandma wearing nothing but a feather boa.
Bob Brooce 2 years ago
Maybe it's a soft toy, or maybe it's a c**k sock. Without more details we'll never know.
Load More Replies... Katie Lutesinger 2 years ago
Men everywhere shudder in horror and cross their legs at the mere mention of the Penis Eraser.
PolymathNecromancer 2 years ago
You subconsciously wanted a comma in there :-)
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Nice Beast Ludo 2 years ago
My grandparents are in their 90s and have sex every Thursday. More than I'm getting half the time
#39
Many years ago I went with my dad and aunt to clean out my great uncle’s apartment after he passed away. He was never married, no kids, and lived (we thought) very poor. Tiny apartment with a twin bed, table and chair, a couple of pots and pans, a couple pants& shirts, and that’s basically it. As we stripped the bed and moved the mattress, we were shocked. He had hundreds of stacks of 10 dollar bills, wrapped in rubber bands, under his mattress. They were all 10 dollar bills. He lived during the Depression and didn’t trust banks, apparently, but we had no idea he had so much cash. He never spent it on anything. Just bundled it and saved it under his mattress. Some of the bills were so old and yellowed. It equaled thousands of dollars. We had no idea.
Mike Fitzpatrick 2 years ago
Certainly not trusting that one's $ will be available via atms.
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VonBlade 2 years ago
"You've been the victim of identity theft"; "You mean a bank robbery"; "No, identity theft, you've lost money, we're fine"; "Well I still have my identity, so I you need to get your money back" etc etc
Freya the Wanderer 2 years ago
I have a lot of my moolah in a credit union. I used to have cash at two banks - I'm so glad I closed my Wells Fargo account! - but now it's one bank and a credit union.
Load More Replies... Sophia Grey 2 years ago
Sad that inflation probably decreased the value by a significant proportion over the years he kept them stashed.... Unless they were very very old collector's notes, that is
#40
My grandmother, we discovered, had a decent sized safety deposit box full of gold bars. She kept meticulous records of her finances and business dealings as she was a very successful author. Yet no record of the purchase or the existence of these gold bars was in any of her records. We have no idea of how, when or why they were acquired. I’d love to know.
Frank Tereschak 2 years ago
It was illegal for Americans to own gold bars before 1974. Perhaps that's why grandma had no record of ownership.
ColdSteelRonin 2 years ago
perhaps the meticulous records were meticulously doctored to hide the fact that she was squirreling away gold
LizzieBoredom 2 years ago (edited)
'How to Hide Gold Bars in Your Safety Deposit Box'.
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#41
My uncle, who had been sober for about twenty years before his passing, had dozens of full bottles of liquor in his basement. He bought them over the time he was sober for and for some reason had them all stored neatly in boxes. One of his old service buddies said that he was probably buying them to honor the people he lost in Vietnam, as he stopped going to the VFW and events when he stopped drinking. He had a lot of survivors’ guilt.
Vasana Phong 2 years ago (edited)
My dad loved his alcohol, I wouldn’t say he was an alcoholic, he’ll drink a couple beers after work, then off to bed, but on special occasions he’ll get hammered from hard liquor, my mom would always him tell slow it down, he never listened, but told her he wouldn’t drink liquor anymore , when he had his stroke he had a lot of other health issues, he was paralyzed , mom took care of him, he passed a year after, when cleaning out his shed, she found so many bottles of hard liquor hidden
Robin DJW 2 years ago
It's sad, really, that so many people are closeted in some way. It seems to be a large part of the human experience.
Load More Replies... Michael Largey 2 years ago
W.C. Fields had crates and crates of liquor stored in his attic. When people reminded him that Prohibition was over, he replied "I know, but it might come back."
#42
I learned a lot about my grandma’s daughter from a previous marriage that she never talked about. She kept a shoebox full of letters and pictures.
#43
My grandmother hid 5k cash in her vacuum cleaner. Good thing I opened it to change the bag before I donated it. She also had a kitchen drawer completely full of the rubber bands from her daily newspaper delivery. Nothing else but those..
Couragetcd 2 years ago
I've never heard of money vacuuming. I don't think you can be arrested like you can for laundering it, but you might not want to use the carpet shampoo to be on the safe side.
Michael Largey 2 years ago
In my finances, the concepts of "money" and "vacuum" are closely related.
Historyharlot93 2 years ago
My grandmother had cash hidden throughout her room at her assisted living place. My parents kept finding it when they cleaned it out after she died. I’ve heard this from so many people. Is it a Great Depression thing? My grandma also hoarded butter containers. There was about 40 of them in her place too.
Papa 2 years ago
I think it does go back to that time. One of my great-aunts saved envelopes from mail she received to use for grocery lists, notes, etc
Load More Replies... #44
They found out my Grandmother lied about her age to her second husband. Keep in mind this was the 1940s. Her age on her marriage license was 6 years younger than she actually was.
Shelli Aderman 2 years ago
That was common for many people who narrowly escaped Nażi Germany. It was the only way to get a Visa out!
Melinda Flick 2 years ago
My grandmother didn't TELL her second husband how old she was. He knew she was older, but found out she was 13 years older when she went in the hospital for surgery and he had to give her medical papers to the nurses at admission. He didn't care, he thought it was funny that she hid it from him.
#45
Not really a secret but cleaning out my gay brothers sex toy collection in front of my father wasn't a lot of fun
Phoenix 2 years ago
If/when I have to do this for my sister, I will be asking my dad to leave the room. She and I have already discussed it. One of her fears is that my dad will be the one to find it so I've been instructed to dispose of it before that could happen.
BoredPossum 2 years ago
Really, how bad can sex toys be? It either goes in or around an organ, or some BD-SM stuff with rubber or leather. It's not like they are gonna shock anyone. Unmarked dvds on the other hand...
Maximilian~ 2 years ago
It’s probably not bad per se, but more awkward than anything. I think most people would be uncomfortable cleaning out a stash of their child’s adult toys
Load More Replies... Lavern Defazio 2 years ago (edited)
I had a large " Collection" of magazines at one point. Decided to get rid of them after my dad was helping me move and the bottom fell out and all the mags rained on him. Hes a pastor. My apartment is now suprises-free. He seen it all in his day so he didnt blink an eye and put them back in the box and carried on.
Xenon 2 years ago
There was a comedian who about a company in the US that will swoop in and "sanitize" your home quickly before family arrives to do it.
Michael Largey 2 years ago
Are they hiring? I have experience in that area.
Load More Replies... Guess Undheit 2 years ago
Gay sex toys? Be glad it's just that. I've seen my never-married incel heterosexual "brother's" taste in porn while snooping and let's just say, I fear for women.
#46
Coming from a conservative household it was incredibly shocking to find out my uncle was a deeply closeted gay man. Shocking but it made sense. He was always well groomed, nails manicured (no polish just really neat nails) impeccable classic style, he had a lot of friend who were girls but no girlfriends and no male friends.
Roger9er 2 years ago
It's such a shame and such a waste of happiness in life, if someone needs to act to be someone they are not, in order to keep others happy, instead of themselves.
PolymathNecromancer 2 years ago
It's more of a shame that so many folks don't have enough humility, and sometimes the balls, to create an environment for others to be ok. It's taken me 20 years to help others be ok. And now I'm a bit more ok <3
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Diolla 2 years ago (edited)
Interesting that he had no male friends. My late (and favourite) auntie who was a closet lesbian ONLY had female friends.
Amused panda 2 years ago
Maybe he felt uncomfortable introducing his family to his male friends.
Load More Replies... Tamra 2 years ago (edited)
My uncle was a closeted gay man for a long time. He married a woman, they had a son, and he lived like that for fifteen years. They finally divorced and he came out. Moved to a big city and ran a bar in a place that hosted drag shows. This was in the early 80's, and he ended up contracting AIDS, and died. I loved him and thought he was fabulous, funny and smart, but I was sad that, for most of his life, he didn't feel free to live his own, authentic life.
for ducks sake 2 years ago
I know a guy like this. He attends a very LGBT affirming church, but is closeted around his family, in order to protect THEM. Makes me so sad.
Camber Hollywood 2 years ago
Conservatives have a lot of practice lying. Why are we surprised when they do it?
#47
My great grandmother was one of survivors from a religious persecution in my home country. She hid an old English Bible, translated Bible (all hand written in my native language), blood stained English dictionary (really old and bad conditon), cross pendants and etc. A group of researchers paid my grand mother for the hand written Bible. It was a pretty interesting material for researchers to study my native language around late 1800s. She did not want her children to be punished because of her action at that time, so majority of my family did not know about it.
David Paterson 2 years ago
A hand written Bible in a rare language - from the 1800s. That is so unexpected!
Lavern Defazio 2 years ago (edited)
And now there are 1001 translations and interpretations of the bible floating around.
Load More Replies... Vicki Perizzolo 2 years ago
Religious persecution is always bad on any level by any other religion...hence my lack of
#48
My mom learned her dad has another family. We met them a few years ago.
Mechanician 2 years ago
Remember the two 'Chris'es from Northern Exposure, whose father had two families as a long haul trucker. Great characters, great show.
Fairytails From Other Worlds 2 years ago
What if people would do these things openly like some Mormons? Happy polygamist families. No-one getting hurt.
Shelli Aderman 2 years ago
But not when it’s not consensual. And he was basically cheating on one entire family half the time!
Load More Replies... #49
An atheist friend had prayer beads under his pillow and had left $ to the local mosque so he could have a Muslim funeral service.
Michael Largey 2 years ago
There are other explanations for the funeral. Maybe he wanted to express solidarity with people who were oppressed by the majority religion - a position he felt himself to be in as an atheist. Or he just liked to play with people's heads to the very end. (Some of us are like that.) As to the beads, are worry beads distinguishable from prayer beads?
Load More Replies... Lauren Bridger 2 years ago (edited)
Usually atheists know more about religion than those who are devout. It's the main reason they became atheist. I would also imagine the type of funeral or service he wanted was more for the comfort of his loved ones than him.
Ricardo Ferreira 2 years ago
I think he believed in a Creator, but not in His/Her preachers down there.
Load More Replies... Paul Pienkowski 2 years ago
So sad he had to hide his religion. He was probably scared of being judged for being Muslim.
Michael Largey 2 years ago
"I do not believe in an afterlife, although I am bringing a change of underwear." - Woody Allen
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#50
Grandma had multiple cats in freezers
Bored Templar 2 years ago
No, it's not. She was probably very attached to them and didn't want to let go
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Robert T 2 years ago
Unless she had mastered cryogenics without anyone knowing, yes.
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Laurie Ostergaard-Overbey 2 years ago (edited)
i understand this one. cant afford to cremate, dont want to bury and leave behind if you have to move, i had to do this during the winter with mulitple dogs/cats, gerbils etc,(over my lifetime) the ground was too frozen to dig a grave. open your minds people, it's not always 'sinister' or 'disturbing'.....now a dead, frozen, unwrapped, pet cat laying on top of tomorrows hamburger dinner, THAT'S disturbing LOL
Mechanician 2 years ago
I thought about this. In urban and suburban areas, poor and elderly or disabled persons may find themselves with no way to properly put the remains of a beloved pet to rest. It's illegal to bury pets in the backyard here, even if one can manage to dig. A pet cemetery is surprisingly expensive, as cremation can be. I see a freezer as a way to procrastinate dealing with an emotionally and fiscally painful problem. Nobody seems to be able to afford grieving anymore.
#51
I was cleaning out my grandparents house and found photos from my mom's first wedding. She never told me she was married before my dad. I finally talked to her about it the other day. According to her it doesn't count because she had it annulled. My mom didn't even spend the wedding night with him, she called my grandpa and made him come get her. My mom only married the guy as a way to get back at her ex boyfriend that she was in love with. She's now on her technically 4th marriage and it's to a woman. I guess she gave up on men.
Michael Largey 2 years ago
Annulments. A friend of mine has been the groom in three weddings, but legally he's only been married once.
Couragetcd 2 years ago
Wow. I hope they didn't spend more time planning the wedding than the marriage lasted.
#52
When sorting through my grandma's affairs after she passed my father found that my uncle had been stealing from her back account and racking up debt around $18,000 on her credit cards gambling online. To make it worse he was doing it while she was suffering from dementia. My father who was almost 70 at the time was basically forced to take out a mortgage on my grandma's house that my grandparents paid off back in the 70's. He's always been a bit of a scumbag but that was sickening
for ducks sake 2 years ago
Can someone upvote this comment so I can know if I'm a real panda? I think BP has me shadow blocked over my username.
#53
Our (single/62 yr old) uncle died in the mid 1970's and when our mom and her sister went to clean out his apartment they found mass quantities of hard core pornography, his bedroom was decorated like a young girls (think Montgomery Wards French Provincial Canopy Bed Suite), and the mattress had a hole bored into it about waist high. My brothers had to maneuver said mattress down 3 flights of stairs so their recollections of our Uncle Bunny have become hysterical family lore.
Littlemiss 2 years ago
I hope the brothers showered afterwards and burned the clothes they were wearing, along with the matress 🤮
#54
My dad never fully gave up the cult he was a part of. Held on to a lot of their stuff, despite telling my mom he got rid of it all.
Heather W 2 years ago
On that note, my late bf had apparently bought every set of dvd lessons from the Scientologists and never even opened them. I keep finding more. Selling them cheap lol
PolymathNecromancer 2 years ago
Should burn them instead. It's not helpful to keep them in the pipeline.
Load More Replies... #55
Birth certificate for a half brother I didn’t know anything about. ETA: His name is Daniel ( I tear up occasionally when I hear Elton John sing Daniel) He is 14 years older than me. He was adopted by his stepfather when he was 3. My Dad only saw him a couple of times, he was married to his Mom but they divorced after a few months and She took Daniel and moved across the country. He knows he has 1/2 sibs but doesn’t want to meet us or have a relationship. The weirdest thing about it, he is a carbon copy of my dad. Bonus surprises, I never knew my Dad was married before my mom. I also found out that my Mom was married before my Dad too. No kids, apparently her 1st hubs used my mom as his beard. He married her and 3 days later moved to Hollywood with his “best friend”to become a star. They got divorced on their 1 year wedding anniversary.
Magpie 2 years ago
"What does it mean to use someone as a beard? A “beard” is an antiquated slang term for someone whose social presence serves to mask aspects of someone else's true self from the public. In the early days of queer culture, a “beard” was a wife, girlfriend or female companion who acted (wittingly or not) as social cover for a closeted gay man."
Load More Replies... #56
That my sister was about to leave her boyfriend. (never married, no common law but together like 14 years) She found out he was cheating, had other kids he was paying child support on, and he was abusive. Also found out my parents are ok with that and even enabling him. I've cut them out of my life. (for that and other reasons)
PolymathNecromancer 2 years ago
Was it this sister who died in your world?? That makes this story even creepier
#57
My aunt had been engaged decades before her death. The engagement was called off because he cheated on her. When she died we have dozens of letters and cards he had sent her over the years. He apparently never stopped writing trying to get her back and she never told anyone she was getting these letters.
#58
Grandma and Great Aunt wrote letters to each other nearly every single day during WWII. They had absolutely nothing interesting to say. It was utterly shocking how non-eventful it all was. It was all stuff like “well we had ham for dinner” and local neighbor gossip that wasn’t even intriguing in the least. Like imagine you came across a treasure trove of 2020 posts and not a single one mentioned quarantine, the pandemic, social distancing, corona, vaccines, masks, or absolutely any of it. Like you couldn’t even tell 2020 was happening. That’s what these wartime letters were like. Eerie stuff. My mom and I read boxes of them, and just… nothing.
Ansi 2 years ago
I think that to. Like when you are mourning someone you might need a break with some mundane stuff.
Load More Replies... Norm Gilmore 2 years ago
They were living through a war. Normal everyday life was exactly what was needed in the letters during that time to remind them that things could get better..
Annie Plamondon 2 years ago
Very insightful Louise Clarke. If that's what they wrote about, it was important to them, even if a third party can't see it. It could have been their refuge, what people call 'their happy place' nowdays.
Robin DJW 2 years ago
Perhaps they used the mail to maintain a closeness, a strong connection, that might have waned without them. In the midst of all that horror and upheaval, knowing that serenity and normalcy were still present in the world provided a touchstone, an anchor to keep a grip on..
Pferdchen 2 years ago (edited)
Years after my father died, a cousin discovered a stash of letters my father wrote his mother during his deployment with the Pacific Fleet during WWII. One letter written stateside laid out a secret code he'd use to convey information the censors wouldn't allow. When I was growing up, dad never once mentioned the landing and all the death on Okinawa. I didn't learn he had seen it all until I was around 50 y.o. I'm glad my father didn't end up in the brig.
les 2 years ago
i cant imagine its good for morale to get honest letters when yor at war. can you imagine reading that your house has been bombed, you have no food and then going out to be shot at? letters like these are just what was written above. you dont want your family member worried about you when the enemy is firing at them
Cheryl Ramsay 2 years ago
I have WWII letters from my father to my mother before they were married. Most are boring stuff like OP mentioned except for talk of their relationshiip. I assume that his letters from Europe were censored by the military.
#59
Closest I got is that I think one of my uncles (one of my dad's brothers) may have been trans, or at least a cross-dresser. If I started listing all the reasons that I always assumed over the years that he was not straight, I'd be here all day. TL:DR, I always figured he was either gay or bi and closeted, and I know my mom thought so too, and remaining closeted made sense to me as our family was largely conservative. He passed way back in '08 when he was only 61, and I was only 32. When we were cleaning out his things, my mom and I found several eye shadow palettes, some lipstick, and setting powder, all obviously used, and no, there's no chance it belonged to anyone else. I don't think she ever pointed it out to my dad. I still have some of the eyeshadow palettes tucked away somewhere I wish he'd taken better care of himself. I wish I'd had the proverbial balls to just ask him about it. I know that he didn't hold the same prejudices in that regard as much of my family did, and he knew that I didn't either. But I never wanted to ask directly because I never wanted to put pressure on him. I *know* how our family was/is, and we were still in the age of don't ask/don't tell. I've used he/him throughout, because that's all he ever openly identified as and I'll never truly know one way or the other, but I will always hold some regret that he may well have died without ever having been able to be open about who he was
Shark Lady 2 years ago
It's so sad the way people have hidden their true selves for decades. I dream of a world where it's safe and acceptable for everyone to be part of the LGBTQ+ community, with no more hiding.
Sophia Grey 2 years ago
Sadly it's heading the other way now because the tiny portion of extreme nutj0bs in the LGBTQ+ community are stirring up society and radicalising those on the opposing side, actively making it worse for the majority of the community that just want to live, love and let live/love
Load More Replies... #60
My parents got divorced almost 50 years ago. When I cleaned out my old man's place thirty years later he had a written out accusation that my mother cheated. I know who he referred to and honestly...he was probably right. My old man was pretty hard to take most of the time so the divorce wasn't a shock. My mother cheating doesn't seem much of a surprise, but that he kept this in writing was...I'm guessing it was his last blame volley from beyond.
#61
My Nanna had 24 unopened tubes of toothpaste in a drawer. Don’t know what that was about.
SoozeeQ 2 years ago
Even if it wasn't Costco - if they were on sale, and she was frugal ......
Load More Replies... David Paterson 2 years ago
In my case it's because I hate the flavour of regular toothpaste, so when a nice tasting one comes along I buy up five years supply in advance. But could be different in her case.
ynyrhydref56 2 years ago (edited)
My grandma kept buying one particular variety of marmalade when it was on special until she had more than we knew what to do with. With my dad it seems to be tomato paste. I think older people get fixated on stuff that way. Edited to correct typo
Phoenix 2 years ago
I'm not that old but it's already happening to me. If something is on sale and I really like it, I'll buy as much as I can.
Load More Replies... PolymathNecromancer 2 years ago
I'm surprised none of the hoarder trolls have assaulted anyone here yet
Vasana Phong 2 years ago (edited)
If it’s on sale and you got a manufacturer’s coupon, gotta stock up, my shampoo normally costs about $5 each, sale would be 2 for $7, would have coupon that took $4 off 2, would give most of it out, that was many years ago
kissmychakram 2 years ago
My late FIL bought uht milk all the time. I think every flat surface in his home had at least one carton on it. Never found out what the obsession was.
#62
Not deceased, but when my grandmother sold her house and moved to a small apartment because she couldn't manage the house and garden anymore, we found loads and loads of chocolate in her cupboards. She had lived extremely healthy (not fanatic and not pushing it on others), but at some point she apparently just decided that enough is enough and started buying loads of chocolate. I guess the habit was strong as there was quite a lot of chocolate lying around still.
Pieter LeGrande 2 years ago
My mum was the same, but she just hoarded all the chocolates given to her over 30+ years as presents. Only a couple opened before she found out she had type II diabetes. No-one knew, so we just kept on giving them.
Enuya 2 years ago
In a few years I'll be like that. I don't like chocolate - I eat some chocolate dessert or cake 1-2 times per year but that's it. My family doesn't believe that someone may dislike it and so every holiday I end with at least 3 bars of chocolate I don't want to eat. I give it to other people as I don't like wasting food but my "collection" is slowly growing nonetheless.
Load More Replies... #63
It was my cousin and that he was gay. Everyone suspected it but nobody said anything about it beyond that he had a bad breakup when he was young (with a woman) and that made him a bachelor for the rest of his life. The *big* stack of men-themed magazines I found in his closet suggested otherwise.
DB 2 years ago
When my ex-father-in-law died my ex-wife found a stash of gay porn and had a freak out over it. Several years later when her never married brother died, I asked my son to go through his uncle's things and discreetly dispose of anything potentially embarrassing. All he found was a huge cache of playboy magazines going back to the 60's.
Mahiera Etsuhae 2 years ago
Some of those could have been worth a bit of money. Errr... So I've heard...
Load More Replies... #64
My grandfather was put in a juvenile home in the 40s. My aunt found letters my grandfather received while there when she was cleaning out his house after he died. One was from a sister teasing him about how she bet he wished he was in school instead for once. Apparently, a neighbor had accused my grandfather of stealing a chicken, and he was taken away. My great grandfather had died, so my grandfather was the man of the house, and my great-grandmother didn't speak English. We don't know many details, other than that he was there for close to a year. My grandfather's older brother was injured in the war and sent back to the States to recover, and once he was able to walk again, he got my grandfather out. The neighbor who called the police on my grandfather was my grandmother's mother.
Shark Lady 2 years ago
It seems that great grandmother didn't think that grandfather was good enough for her daughter, possibly thought that getting him arrested and sent to juvenile jail would stop any budding romance from continuing.
#65
My wife's bio-grandfather was a career Air Force Master Sergeant. He passed and he got roped into helping clean out the house. We found porn. So much porn. Knee high mountains of porn mags in every cabinet we could reach. And it wasn't classic stuff from his service days. There were mags that were dated only a few months before he died. The subscriptions were current.
Spocks's Mom 2 years ago
Too bad he wasn't a fisherman. Master baiter is a nice claim to fame.
Load More Replies... PolymathNecromancer 2 years ago
And, like it or not, arguably better than some other addictions
Load More Replies... #66
My dad had *all* the drill chuck keys.
Igor914624 2 years ago
A "Drill Chuck Key" is a tool. Most drill motors have a "chuck" (the device that clamps onto the drill bit) that requires the key to tighten and loosen it. Some companies make "keyless" chucks that have a rubber coating and don't require a tool to tighten them. But I personally don't like them because you can't get them as tight, and the drill bit will slip. This is a picture of a drill chuck with the key in the foreground. https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftse1.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DOIP.IivwPNHc2pUpiXO6Lu75PwHaFm%26pid%3DApi&f=1&ipt=057c0f9f9f91e3ccc55c44e89a3767ae1ce7e28d45a9ff8086463c214fc41285&ipo=images And this is a picture of a keyless drill chuck: external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftse1.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DOIP.6nzUQka9GlZQMQkGI8oy6QHaFH%26pid%3DApi&f=1&ipt=699360ce5259b9eb8d3ded8d5eb23bb922d46102b8e14ad383512e4dad61f990&ipo=images I hope that helps.
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Mike Fitzpatrick 2 years ago
Damn him! I've personally lost so many of them, I tape them to the cords.
What do you think ?
Lsai Aeon 2 years ago
I found a folder of my adoption. I always knew I was adopted, in fact, that's how my mother would introduce me "This is Lsai, she's adopted". No, what was surprising to me was the fact she told me all my life that nothing was known about my birth family, even after I found them, nothing was known about my birth father, etc. In the folder, I found letters to me from my birth mother's family, family history information, information about my birth, and a page about my birth father. I also found the evidence to prove to me, beyond the introductions my mother made of me, that she orchestrated every bit of the abuse I endured until her death, her telling family I was only to get certain things, I was only allowed one of this or one of that, that they weren't allowed to treat me like I was part of the family, etc. Not sure which is harder to find. That she commanded I be abused or that the family followed it.
Cat Palmer 2 years ago
That's horrendous, and I'm so sorry you had to experience that.
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Powerful Katrinka 2 years ago
My parents had a child (Kit) who drowned a couple of years before I was born. My mom told everyone in the family that Kit had been buried in a tiny family cemetery on my great-uncle's land. I always knew that she had never really recovered from this loss, but none of us knew to what extent. When she died, 54 years after Kit, we found that she had kept his ashes the whole time. She stipulated in her will that her ashes should be mixed with Kit's and scattered in the oc
Powerful Katrinka 2 years ago
...scattered in the ocean. It was absolutely heartbreaking to learn that she had carried that weight of loss for most of her life. We did what she asked for.
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Jessica Hobby 2 years ago
Grandmother (she passed in 2011) was a SUPER hoarder. Found a fox in her deep freezer with a note saying they found it dead on the property....dated from the 70s.
DB 2 years ago
When my ex-father-in-law died my ex-wife found a stash of gay porn and had a freak out over it. Several years later when her never married brother died, I asked my son to go through his uncle's things and discreetly dispose of anything potentially embarrassing. All he found was a huge cache of playboy magazines going back to the 60's.
BookFanatic 2 years ago
Not nearly as earth shattering as most of these. I cleared out my mom's house after she passed. Thought I was doing just fine with my emotions until I picked up the turkey roaster and found a stupid little drawing of a drunken-looking turkey with the note to "wash well first" in my mom's handwriting. Bawled like a 44 yr old baby.
Nonna_SoF 2 years ago
When we were cleaning my grandfather's house we found a bunch of tubes that looked suspiciously like dynamite. My mom moved them to the other room with better light despite my protests. She then realized they weren't quarters. Police were called. Bomb squad came. Turns out they were 40 year old railroad flares. Dynamite leeks nitroglycerin as it ages and most explosives get less stable.
Cat Palmer 2 years ago
While helping clear out my grandmother's house after she died I found my great grandfather's brass cigarette lighter from WW1 in the junk drawer. It had his regiment's coat of arms on one side and it allowed my mum to trace his military records, confirming the family story that this Norfolk farm boy was responsible for teaching a number of minor aristocrats to ride a horse.
Guess Undheit 2 years ago
The only thing I wanted from "family" I got by snooping on facebook: the old b@$tard's military photo, which I can use to get a passport from another country. I bailed on the whole lot of them 20+ years ago: violent and hypocritical religious fanatic "parents", an incel male sibling that is a danger to women, and a religious fanatic female sibling that bred like a rabbit. When the old b@$tard died (so did the old hag), I'm sure his porn collection raised eyebrows. My male sibling's porn is even worse. I'm glad I'm not there for any of it.
Lsai Aeon 2 years ago
I found a folder of my adoption. I always knew I was adopted, in fact, that's how my mother would introduce me "This is Lsai, she's adopted". No, what was surprising to me was the fact she told me all my life that nothing was known about my birth family, even after I found them, nothing was known about my birth father, etc. In the folder, I found letters to me from my birth mother's family, family history information, information about my birth, and a page about my birth father. I also found the evidence to prove to me, beyond the introductions my mother made of me, that she orchestrated every bit of the abuse I endured until her death, her telling family I was only to get certain things, I was only allowed one of this or one of that, that they weren't allowed to treat me like I was part of the family, etc. Not sure which is harder to find. That she commanded I be abused or that the family followed it.
Cat Palmer 2 years ago
That's horrendous, and I'm so sorry you had to experience that.
Load More Replies... Powerful Katrinka 2 years ago
My parents had a child (Kit) who drowned a couple of years before I was born. My mom told everyone in the family that Kit had been buried in a tiny family cemetery on my great-uncle's land. I always knew that she had never really recovered from this loss, but none of us knew to what extent. When she died, 54 years after Kit, we found that she had kept his ashes the whole time. She stipulated in her will that her ashes should be mixed with Kit's and scattered in the oc
Powerful Katrinka 2 years ago
...scattered in the ocean. It was absolutely heartbreaking to learn that she had carried that weight of loss for most of her life. We did what she asked for.
Load More Replies... Jessica Hobby 2 years ago
Grandmother (she passed in 2011) was a SUPER hoarder. Found a fox in her deep freezer with a note saying they found it dead on the property....dated from the 70s.
DB 2 years ago
When my ex-father-in-law died my ex-wife found a stash of gay porn and had a freak out over it. Several years later when her never married brother died, I asked my son to go through his uncle's things and discreetly dispose of anything potentially embarrassing. All he found was a huge cache of playboy magazines going back to the 60's.
BookFanatic 2 years ago
Not nearly as earth shattering as most of these. I cleared out my mom's house after she passed. Thought I was doing just fine with my emotions until I picked up the turkey roaster and found a stupid little drawing of a drunken-looking turkey with the note to "wash well first" in my mom's handwriting. Bawled like a 44 yr old baby.
Nonna_SoF 2 years ago
When we were cleaning my grandfather's house we found a bunch of tubes that looked suspiciously like dynamite. My mom moved them to the other room with better light despite my protests. She then realized they weren't quarters. Police were called. Bomb squad came. Turns out they were 40 year old railroad flares. Dynamite leeks nitroglycerin as it ages and most explosives get less stable.
Cat Palmer 2 years ago
While helping clear out my grandmother's house after she died I found my great grandfather's brass cigarette lighter from WW1 in the junk drawer. It had his regiment's coat of arms on one side and it allowed my mum to trace his military records, confirming the family story that this Norfolk farm boy was responsible for teaching a number of minor aristocrats to ride a horse.
Guess Undheit 2 years ago
The only thing I wanted from "family" I got by snooping on facebook: the old b@$tard's military photo, which I can use to get a passport from another country. I bailed on the whole lot of them 20+ years ago: violent and hypocritical religious fanatic "parents", an incel male sibling that is a danger to women, and a religious fanatic female sibling that bred like a rabbit. When the old b@$tard died (so did the old hag), I'm sure his porn collection raised eyebrows. My male sibling's porn is even worse. I'm glad I'm not there for any of it.
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