Back in the 90's, for one year, I went to public school with a set of twins I'll call Jack and Jill. Up until 6th grade, I was in a private school. But over the summer before 6th grade my parents separated and my mom couldn't afford the tuition for my younger siblings and me. So we ended up going to public school.
So here I was, 11 years old, new school, new classmates, newly separated parents... I was pretty upset and generally not doing well. I acted out a lot and did some pretty nasty things, in my opinion. One of the worst things I did was accuse Jill of stealing something when I didn't have proof it was her. Why I did this in not sure. People would comment how Jill and I looked alike. Jill was popular but I was not because I was the new kid. In a way, I hated that we favored. But mainly I think I was just a shitty kid. Towards the very end of the year, my best friend at the school and I got into a shoving match with Jill and Jack. All of our parents were called into a meeting. That night my dad moved back into the house and my parents stopped their divorce. I went back to private school the following year. I never really questioned why.
My mom, Cathy, passed away from cancer around ten years ago and my dad has developed dementia. He thinks I'm his sister Mary most of the time. I no longer live close by, but I still visit at least once every other month. I got here yesterday and I'm staying thru Wednesday. Last night, as I was going through family photos, my father turned to me and said, "Mary, promise me that you will never tell the kids about Jack and Jill. They can never know."
I asked what he meant and he said, "Stop kidding around. I promised Cathy they would never know."
I just nodded and said ok, not really knowing how else to get information out of my dad. Today I called my Aunt Mary and she came clean, telling me that Jack and Jill are the product of a years long affair that only ended after my parents had the meeting with Jack and Jill's mom. Apparently my mom made my dad choose between his family or his fun as soon as the meeting ended and my dad chose his family. I don't know if he ever paid child support or if Jack and Jill know he's their dad. I don't know how long my mom knew about the affair or the kids but my aunt thinks my mom found out only after I was having problems with Jill at school.
I can't ask my mom. I can't ask my dad. My siblings don't know. Do I reach out to Jill or Jack? Or do I live the rest of my life questioning?
TL;DR: My dad is suffering from dementia and told me, thinking I was his sister, that two former classmates are my half siblings. I have many questions and I don't know if I should reach out to my half siblings.
Submitted October 27, 2019 at 03:03PM by ThatsKanyesFern https://ift.tt/34810Ys
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