I was adopted. So my blood family are people that I’ve really never met. I did locate and find out who my biological mother was and talked to my biological aunt, and since then my biological mother has passed away, so I never got a chance to meet her. I know that there are a couple of — I have a couple of half brothers out there and I don’t really know how to contact them, or how to get ahold of them, or even if I should, because I was adopted — I was put up for adoption when I was an infant. My biological mother was not married, and I believe that she went into that with the understanding that this was a totally confidential thing, that that was not — you know, that she was not — it was not an open adoption, and I feel bad violating her wishes and her rights to look up family members or instigate too much.
Now, my, my cousin came off totally from the opposite perspective when I was talking with her. She was very upset that this was not public information and that she found out — we found out through 23andMe. And when we looked at how closely related we were, it was like, “This has gotta be.” I had at some point in the past, gotten some non-identifying information from the court, and when she told her family story, um, her mother was one of four sisters, as was my biological mother. And when we started connecting all the dots, it was very clear that she was my cousin and that this one particular sister was my biological mother.
And — but they had — they denied it. They, they — her mother, her own mother, my biological aunt denied it. And I think it was just back in those days, it was the 50s and I think those secrets, they expected to keep those secrets forever. They promised they wouldn’t tell, wouldn’t tell the story and they wouldn’t, wouldn’t betray that confidence, and I had a hard time with, um, with my cousin, ’cause I accepted that and respected that, but she had a hard time realizing there was another family member that her family never told her about. So, um, since then, I think that’s sort of lifted away, and I don’t talk to her very much. But, again, you know, I would have liked to have met her, and I’d like to meet my biological brothers, but that’s okay. It’s all right. Sometimes I think things are just the way they’re meant to be and if it’s meant to be it will happen, and if it’s not it won’t.