People Are Sharing Wild Secrets Their Families Kept From Them As Children, And I’m Speechless

8.

“I was 24 in 1981 when I found out in the most shocking way that my dad was gay! I was married and was about to start my second year of teaching while my then-husband was in graduate school. Teachers get paid at the end of the month. He’d overdrawn our account again, and I threw a fit. I demanded that I take charge of the finances, and for the first time ever, had to go to my parents to borrow money. It was about a week to payday, and I figured out the smallest amount of money possible to make it until the end of the month. My parents always said I never needed to call first before coming over, so I went around 4 p.m. before Mom came home from work and I didn’t call. I went in through the garage and yelled, ‘Hello? Is there anyone home?’ with no reply. Dad was on a health kick at the time and was doing a lot of walking, so I sat at the kitchen table reading the paper until he came back, dreading what I was going to ask him.”

“Shortly, a tall blonde man with glasses came down the hall buttoning up a white dress shirt. That’s all he was wearing, and he was in a certain…condition. He stopped when he saw me, about the same time I looked up. My brain went numb, and I automatically said, ‘Hello.’ He turned around, went back into Dad’s bedroom, and said, ‘I think your daughter’s here.’ A couple of minutes later, Dad came out—thankfully fully dressed—and we chatted small talk for about 30 seconds before my ‘fight or flight’ kicked in. I blurted out, ‘Dad, I need forty dollars.’ I didn’t bother to explain why; he wrote me a check, and I left.”

—Anonymous