Everyone has a secret up their sleeve.
Some of these are tame, like blaming a sibling for something minor. Others, like poisoning their grandma for her inheritance, are downright horrible.
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While they may have taken these secrets to the grave, all is revealed eventually.
Here are 19 secrets people found out about their loved ones after they died.
The cover story.
For decades, the story went that this Redditor’s great-grandfather was eaten as a bear when working as a park ranger.
After he really died, it was discovered that he had been run out of town for cheating on the Redditor’s great-grandmother.
Their uncle’s murderer.
“Found out my uncle was murdered but stayed alive long enough to tell his wife who the murderer was. It was her brother. I was pretty young when he died so my mother never told me the truth until I asked recently.” – u/CaptainObvious1906
The biological father.
Since this Redditor took care of their dad’s finances before he passed, they learned that their parents were divorced well before they would have been conceived.
After asking their mom questions, they learned that another man was their biological father.
Grandma’s boyfriend.
“We found out that my grandmother had a boyfriend after they took her off life support. She was in her mid 70s and I guess he took her out on lunch dates each week for about 6/7 years. None of us knew.” – u/jessamin_hudson
The caretaker.
“My dad gave up a 100% fellowship for a math PhD in order to work to provide for an unanticipated pregnancy (me). He really wanted to teach and he was a natural. In the 60 years I knew him, he never mentioned the PhD or fellowship opportunity.” – u/mel_cache
The secret children.
After this Redditor’s grandpa passed away, they discovered that they had another six kids on top of the seven they had with the Redditor’s grandmother. They didn’t find out until the funeral… awkward.
The thief.
“My great-uncle was a cab driver and he died sitting in his cab — like a heart attack or something — and his sister found him but didn’t tell anyone because she wanted to be the first to ransack his house. Legend had it he had several hundreds of thousands of dollars hidden.” – u/noots-internally
The second family.
“When my dad died, we found out he had a second family – complete with kids, and a woman that thought they were married. It was pretty shocking, especially as both my mother, and his ‘other’ wife were fundamentalist christians.” – u/sorciel
The last words.
This Redditor’s father died when they were 12. The night before, they begged their dad to pick them up early from a sleepover at their cousins.
When he said no, they yelled, “I hate you!” He died the next day. For fifteen years, they thought he had died angry with them. Turns out, he couldn’t get them since he was about to get frisky with their mom!
The inheritance.
“A couple years ago, my great uncle passed away. When he died, in addition to a mansion in Chicago, he left $15 million for his children to split up. ($3 million each) As it turns out, he used to be only two steps below kingpin of a large Chicago mob.” – u/pigsfly1133
The change of heart.
“My grandpa was a massive racist for a long time, until very late in his life when he calmed down a bit. After his death we found out that he had been financially supporting underprivileged African-American kids secretly for at least a few years.” – u/NoLongerAPotato
The coming out.
After this Redditor’s mom died, their dad admitted something shocking. They said that they would be dating men now and that he was gay before he married their mom. We wonder if the wife knew.
Grandpa’s secret.
“Cleaning out Grandma and Grandpa’s garage after they passed. Pulled down a box from the rafters and find Grandpa’s secret porn stash – 1970s gay porn magazines and 8mm films. Hard to say how much Grandma knew, but they were together for over 50 years.” – u/dontcallmejimm
The investment.
“My parents saw me as an investment and kept a secret journal of how much they spent on me my entire life. What I got for Christmas, birthday gifts, movie tickets, even when they gave me quarters for the arcade.” – u/taint_of_love
The cheating boyfriend.
This girl found out her boyfriend cheated on her after he died. The only reason they found out was because a girl on Facebook bragged about being with him. When she called them a liar, they posted pics for proof. Yikes!
The wealthy grandfather.
“My grandfather was very wealthy and I found out after he passed that he anonymously paid for hundreds of funerals for children in minority, low-income parts of our town.” – u/loveiswhy-nohate
The mother’s boyfriend(s).
This Redditor was in for the surprise of their life when they met all four of their mother’s boyfriends at her funeral. What a player! It was a surprise to everyone, including the boyfriends!
The secret agent.
“My wife’s uncle was a field agent for the CIA. They would fly he and his wife to Italy where they would swap out their ID’s. Issue them their cover ID’s and then fly them out to pose as Italian Tourists.” – u/yamaha2000us
The siblings.
“My great-aunt and great-uncle were siblings who had an incest relationship for most of their lives. They shared a house for the last decades of their lives which I always thought was very sweet, siblings caring for each other as they got older.” – u/OneAide777
