Sometimes we stumble across information about people we know and it takes us totally by surprise. What's your story?

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#1

That my paternal grandma is weird as f**k. She gave me some underwear as a gift a few years ago and they originally had a little plastic pearl on the front but my grandma decided to cut it off so that she could sell them and make money. She also demanded it back a while ago for some reason. I also found out that when I was 12, she found a groom for me who I would marry once I’m of legal age to do so. Honestly everything she’s done is very weird and she’s a huge narcissist as well and belittles people who are not her

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Stardust she/her
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#2

I found out that my mom married my military dad to take trips around the world. It's not a love marriage. And she told me that if it had to be done over again, she wouldn't have had any children. It was not easy to find a card on Mother's Day! ("Mom, you're so loving! Mom, you've encouraged me so much!") I had to find one that said, "Have a nice day." 😅

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Frances Pitchoune
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Gambit22
Gambit22
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Just make your own mother's day card that says "You birthed me"

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#3

My maternal grandmother tried to kill her first child when he was an infant. She threw him off the back of a boat; fortunately, there was a witness who dove in and saved him. He only survived because he was wrapped in swaddling layers, which remained buoyant because of trapped air bubbles. It’s such a sad story: she got pregnant as the result of date rape, and her parents forced he to marry her rapist. She was a bitterly unhappy woman all of her life.

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Powerful Katrinka
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jolie laide
jolie laide
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Damn, stories like these are so crushing. Even worse, is that it's 2023 and a lot of places in the world are still like this while others are trying to retract and go backwards.

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#4

This isn't really strange, but rather heartwarming.

My dad passed away in September 2022. He was kind of a bum, dirty, didn't take care of himself, and lived in a gross trailer on my aunt's property. He had this backpack that he carried his few belongings in everywhere he went. After he passed, my aunt was going through that bag and found weed, cigarettes, beef jerky, a few other things like chargers and clothes and such, and in the very front pocket were a few feathers. I was born in California, and that's where he lived, so he would take me to Fort Bragg and to different beaches when I was little. We used to have this game to see who could collect more feathers, and after each game, he would stow the feathers I gave him in his backpack, and I would stow mine in my luggage to go home after our visit. I still have all my feathers in a bag on top of the box with his ashes, and he kept his inside his bag.

The strange thing I found out about my dad was that he remembered the little moments. Sometimes I thought he didn't care about me, or that he forgot about me when I would go back to Ohio after our visits. Now that he's gone, I'm realizing that I was everything to him, and I'm realizing how much he really meant to me.

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banjoestar
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Kate Johnson
Kate Johnson
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm so, so sorry for your loss. But, I'm glad that you've taken the time and thought and open mind and heart to learn more about him, and where his thoughts truly were: with you.

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#5

My father has multiple godchildren that he does not see/I have never met.

We were driving through our city (his hometown) and he mentioned that he and his friend (who I had never heard of before) used to bike alongside the stream we drove by. I asked him if they had lost contact, and he said no, they'd remained friends until I was born, but stopped talking.

Me being curious, I asked what happened (I was worried it was me being born), and he told me that his friend had a crazy girlfriend/ex who he had been trying to get away from/take custody of their children from for years. Eventually, the friend kind of just stopped fighting, and told my dad that they were together again.

Now when I say the girlfriend was crazy, she was crazy. She thought my dad was trying to break her and his friend up (he wasn't, he was helping him with the legal stuff since he was in law school but that was it) and sent him a letter to his house threatening to either harm or kill him (he wouldn't say).

At this point, my mom was pregnant with me, so my dad gave his friend a choice-cut the girlfriend out of his life, and he'd continue helping him with the custody stuff as best he could, or keep seeing her and lose my dad. His friend chose her, and my dad cut off all contact with him, and moved to a different address.

I really hope that the kids are okay, from what I heard it sounded like their mother (the girlfriend) was mentally/verbally abusive, and I wouldn't be surprised if it got psychical as the kids grew up. Sadly, my dad never told me any names, so I can't look them up and see if they are okay.

(side note: my dad tried to call CPS, but his friend wouldn't cooperate and sided with the girlfriend)

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QueerAxolotls
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jolie laide
jolie laide
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

God, hearing about situations like this are tough let alone being in the middle of one, like your Dad. He did the right thing at the time though.

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#6

My ex best friend, we will call her "Daisy" was once left alone in the car with a murderer.



As a baby, her father was best buddies with this guy we will call "Joe". They knew each other from highschool and I guess Daisy's dad trusted Joe enough to drive her around and such.

Now, her father and Joe are no longer friends, because they found out that Joe murdered their highschool principal. I don't know why, she doesn't know why, nobody knows why or nobody is willing to tell.

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sleepy.axolotl
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#7

My paternal grandmother had many children, four of whom suffered suspicious deaths before age 5. Evidence gathered over the years suggest she deliberately made her other children ill in order to get sympathy b/c she was basically a nutjob. She also did this to her grandchildren (I was one of them, which was why my mom didn't let us near the woman unattended again).

After a lot of research, it's generally agreed she was a child abuser in the "Munchhausen Syndrome by Proxy" mode. Which makes her... a child abuser. Don't get all interested in her. Learn to look for victims of people like her, because it's abuse, nothing less, and murder at most.

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Leo Domitrix
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#8

Several years ago, I received a letter from a Children's Services agency in another state, asking me if I was related to two children whose names I didn't recognize at first. When I showed the letter to my wife, she remembered that that they had lived in the same apartment complex as we did several years before, and that the boy was the same age as our oldest daughter. They played together often. We responded that we knew the children but weren't related to them. We guessed that since every apartment in that complex had the same street address, they connected our former address to theirs. This made us curious as to why they were looking for relatives of these children. A quick internet search told the story. Their father believed that he had caught their mother cheating on him and he unalived her. Dad was now in prison and Mom was gone, so authorities were looking for relatives with whom to place the children. Our daughter had played with their son many times both at our home and at theirs. We had talked with the parents on multiple occasions. We had no idea he was capable of such a thing. The kids would be young adults now. I hope they got placed in a good situation.

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Crescent 3
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#9

I had a family member who was involved with the Temple of the Sun cult. He wasn't a full-fledged member, but I think it was a lonely time in his life (recently divorced, kids mostly grown and living their own lives), and he fell in with a group that offered a type of camaraderie that he was lacking. Basically, they were using him for his contacts, and his willingness to help his "friends" even if the help required was shady. He fortunately figured it out before the ultimate end of most of the cultists, and getting arrested running guns for them probably helped save his life.

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Catastrophisticate
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#10

My husband had a brother who died after a stomach tube was inserted into his lung. The baby was never given a name and buried without a headstone. I WILL make it right

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Julia H
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#11

That my wife's uncle (my uncle-in-law?) basically decided that he was a Christian zealot one day when she was a pre-teen. He forbid his wife (previously the "cool" aunt) from associating with my wife's family because they were "impure," and took over the day to day life in his house with a heavy hand. He would ruin family gatherings by spouting off about how everyone else was going to hell, they were full of sin, they didn't live by the word of the Bible, etc.
I recognize that people like my wife's uncle are NOT uncommon, but to just stop on dime and switch how everything in his life and his family's lives went seems quite surprising to me.

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Kevin the Manager
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Lil Miss Hobbit
Lil Miss Hobbit
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

As a Christian, I have seen this happen too many times. Just stop. You are not helping anyone. You will only destroy your family and community and you will not honor God while doing it.

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#12

My neighbor treats her dog like a baby. I mean in a highchair, with a baby spoon and bib. Her other dog once got in our backyard, so I went to inform her. She left the door open after I told her, and inside was the dog, in the high chair, with the bib. It was pretty weird.

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bluegal (they/them)
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Powerful Katrinka
Powerful Katrinka
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Some dogs are physically incapable of eating in a horizontal position. It's not uncommon to seat them in a baby chair or something similar in order to feed them. https://researchblog.duke.edu/2022/11/17/why-do-some-dogs-need-high-chairs-and-how-can-genetics-help/

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#13

My friend's a cannibal. Not really, but she's a twin and she was going to be a triplet, but she and her brother ate the last kid in the womb.

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E Eng
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#14

I had started studying at the University (Franco was still alive). My aunt, who had been running a construction company since her husband's death, has already closed it. She sent to my house a desk that her husband had used.
One drawer was locked and, of course, it was the one that caught my attention the most. I managed to access inside and found... A STAR pistol, from the Spanish civil war, with all its bullets (I took it apart).
A friend of mine wanted us to shoot it in the field, but luckily, I refused. Some time later I told my mother who, very angry, went to return the pistol to my aunt's house.
My uncle had it there as protection, since every Saturday they paid the workers (about 50 men) and a lot of money was handled.rp0t I had started studying at the University (Franco was still alive). My aunt, who had been running a construction company since her husband's death, has already closed it. She sent to my house a desk that her husband had used.
One drawer was locked and, of course, it was the one that caught my attention the most. I managed to access inside and found... A STAR pistol, from the Spanish civil war, with all its bullets (I took it apart).
A friend of mine wanted us to shoot it in the field, but luckily, I refused. Some time later I told my mother who, very angry, went to return the pistol to my aunt's house.
My uncle had it there as protection, since every Saturday they paid the workers (about 50 men) and a lot of money was handled.

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El Secretario
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#15

I came across a newspaper clipping dated late 1800s in my mom's memory box. Turns out there's a murderer in my family. Not sure how we're connected, but the 60-year-old farm hand fell in love with the 16-year-old farmer's daughter...and unalived the parents and the daughter with a shotgun. Whew.

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BookFanatic
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censorshipsucks
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

killed her as well? because she wasn't interested? male entitlement and violence. horrific.

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#16

i learned this year that my grandma's brother is married to his cousin.

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freakingbee (she/they)
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Hey!
Hey!
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My parents were first cousins. We don't come from Alabama. They went to 3-4 different states to get married. They finally went to Niagara Falls, first US side, then Canada. The priest on the Canadian side accepted my Dad's bribe, which explains why we are Canadians instead of Americans.

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#17

One of my friends is homophobic, and somehow he accepts me as gay. I don't exactly understand...

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bluegal (they/them)
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Lil Miss Hobbit
Lil Miss Hobbit
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

How do you know they are homophobic? Please do not downvote me for this, but you can accept and love someone without taking part in their lifestyle and/or while putting up boundaries because of religion/etc. Disagreement does not equal hate, it only equals the need for honest communication and respect.

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#18

i found out that my mom's father had an affair with my mom's husband's first wife before my mom met her husband.

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kitteh floof lover
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jolie laide
jolie laide
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I won't lie.. this broke my brain a little. Okay so, your grandfather had an affair with your Dad's ex, before your Dad and Mom met. Yes? Damn family secrets are crazy!

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#19

Neighbour was running a prostitution shop. Just her and her daughter. Allegedly. Another place I lived I had a w*house down the street, a drug den next to that, a stripper lived in between. One guy was hauled off by thugs he owed money to and dumped in the veld (prairie). Another was threatened with beheading in the middle of the complex. Fun times.

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censorshipsucks
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#20

My neighbour used to have a side hustle where he helped pick up what was left of road accident victims. Said he had to stop because of the nightmares. And feeling followed home.

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WordWeaver
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#21

I learned that paternal great grandmother helped Bonnie and Clyde. She hid them from the authorities and bought them supplies.

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deanna woods
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#22

My mom had a baby that died between my brother and me. I later found out (23andMe) that I have a half-brother. Appears she had an affair and got pregnant. Had the baby and put it up for adoption but told family it had died. Eventually my parents divorced but my dad loved her until the day he died. I've been emailing my half-brother for some time now and hope to meet him one day. My older siblings don't really care. My mom was a bit of a hoe and I really have no respect for her anymore.

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Nobody Knows
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#23

Nothing too specific, but before I lived with her, I always thought my aunt was a very kind person (she still is) but now I see that she's also pretty arrogant and can be especially mean sometimes. I feel like she forgets I struggle with lots of communication-related thingies, and I mess things up.

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Sooploosh MacSchnibble
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#24

One day my mum and I were talking, and she happened to mention that my aunt and uncle used to be very publicly affectionate when they first started dating, and I said ' that was strange, considering...' I was going to continue with 'because my aunt is not demontrative' but didn't get that far because my mum gaped at me and said 'wait do you KNOW'. I explained and the subject was dropped, but I've been wondering ever since!!!

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Rhianna Hollowaye
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#25

I recently found out that one of my cousins is a horrible homophobe and a casteist. Worse part is, I found out about this after he tricked me into telling him that my best friend is queer. He ranted how they need therapy and badmouthed them. There were many things before this but this was the final straw. If I ever get a job and move out, I am going no contact.
Then there is my another cousin who studies art. He is a very cool guy.

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Themoonprincess
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LinkTheHylian
LinkTheHylian
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Beat some sense into your first cousin, discuss Van Gogh with the second. Simple.

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#26

I thought my mom was the stereotypical nerdy girl in school. Imagine my surprise when I learned she and her friends broke into the MIT chem lab, stole chemicals that were highly reactive with water, and threw them in the river, and all while they were supposed to be at orientation.

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Disona
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