Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My great uncle was the mafia boss of western Pennsylvania back in his day. I found out when I was 19 and another aunt showed me an old Life magazine article on the most powerful mob bosses in the United States.

As a little girl, I had always wondered why their house was so much nicer than anyone else's in the family. (He was an uncle through marriage, so it wasn't my blood family that was actually "in the business.") My mom told us that my aunt and uncle owned a cement factory and had always worked very hard all their lives.

This gets my vote for best "where the bodies are buried"? deep, dark family secret!

It was in Life...that's not a secret at all -- anyone who knows PP's last name and hometown would know it!

Anonymous wrote:My great uncle was the mafia boss of western Pennsylvania back in his day. I found out when I was 19 and another aunt showed me an old Life magazine article on the most powerful mob bosses in the United States.

As a little girl, I had always wondered why their house was so much nicer than anyone else's in the family. (He was an uncle through marriage, so it wasn't my blood family that was actually "in the business.") My mom told us that my aunt and uncle owned a cement factory and had always worked very hard all their lives.

This gets my vote for best "where the bodies are buried"? deep, dark family secret!

My formerly favorite uncle recently served time for possession of child pornography. Not a secret since it's publicly available, but the majority of my family lives in a different state and those who know pretended he was on an extended business trip. I am still shocked and appalled by it.

My sister and her long term boyfriend pretended that my niece was his, but really my sister had cheated on him and he pretended to be the father to save face because they were working on the relationship. 18 years later and it leaked out to my niece and some others in the family.

Anonymous wrote:my mothers tells little white lies. the most annoying one is her birthday, she claims to have been born in a different month then her real birthday, same year. go figure, she has never told me why she has lived with this stupid lie for decades but now I have to cover for her too. its so stupid and annoying.

My husband's official birthday is six months earlier than his real one. He was born in a developing country, where the parents register the birth with the authorities. His dad claimed he was born earlier, so that he would be able to start school earlier. Then, a few years later, he did the same thing with the second child. He picked the same date, so that he would be more likely to remember it.

This isn't a secret... he'll tell anyone who asks. But it's a possible reason for your mother's strangeness.

my mothers tells little white lies. the most annoying one is her birthday, she claims to have been born in a different month then her real birthday, same year. go figure, she has never told me why she has lived with this stupid lie for decades but now I have to cover for her too. its so stupid and annoying.

My grandfather was an epic philanderer. At 55 he divorced my grandmother and married a girl who was one class above my uncle in high school (she was 23 at the time and my uncle was 22). He and the "brazen hussy" were carrying on before the divorce. That's why I have an uncle who is younger than me. This really was no secret... the whole town knew about it!

My whole family has rabbits

My mother's mother was Jewish, and married a Catholic man. Her family disowned her. My mother was an only child, and as a result of this incident, never knew her mother's large family. My mother was raised Catholic and had 4 kids. We never knew why mom's family was so small, until one of us wanted to get married by a Rabbi, and had to "prove" that she was at least part Jewish. She went digging and lo and behold - found this family secret. Of course us kids were all joyful to have this info at last, and my sister converted and broke the glass... but Grandpa never forgave her for marrying a jew.

I'M SO GLAD TIMES HAVE CHANGED

My dad, a revered pillar of the community, was an abusive alcholic who would go into a drunken rage every 5-7 days, wrecking the house, beating the shit out of everyone and making a spectacle in public. He killed himself as did two of my siblings. I have no shame with people who didn't know me growing up but I have immense shame with people who knew me back then, even though I know intellectually it's not my fault. Emotionally, I still live in fear and dread that the horrible secret will be out. As long as it's not talked about, I can pretend we're "normal".

My great uncle was the mafia boss of western Pennsylvania back in his day. I found out when I was 19 and another aunt showed me an old Life magazine article on the most powerful mob bosses in the United States.

As a little girl, I had always wondered why their house was so much nicer than anyone else's in the family. (He was an uncle through marriage, so it wasn't my blood family that was actually "in the business.") My mom told us that my aunt and uncle owned a cement factory and had always worked very hard all their lives.

That my grandfather was 1/4 black and passed for white. I had to pry it out of my mother...

My grandfather^4 (maybe 5) was native american. It's only as of my parents' generation that it's acceptable to talk about it- the subject was strictly forbidden with the generation before them. He "passed" as european from the time he was a young man.

My mother committed suicide.

I found out I had a (full) older brother when I was 17.

Nothing that is too obviously identifiable, of course. In my case it is that my great grandfather was Jewish. My idiotic mother still speaks about it in hushed tones.