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Unlocked- Family Secrets
Unlocked- Family Secrets (2025) S01E02
Unlocked- Family Secrets (2025) Season 1 Episode 2
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00:00I had an idyllic childhood, a loving family,
00:06and beautiful memories.
00:08But for most of my life, I've been
00:11focused on finding out where I came from.
00:14I had no idea my search would uncover a horrific family
00:19secret.
00:21I remember my mother said to me, just be careful
00:25and make sure that you're ready for what you might find.
00:30It felt like a world collapsing.
00:32That day would change my life forever.
00:36Your past sometimes will catch up with you.
00:39That storm is coming.
00:41It was just overwhelming.
00:43Then I just blacked out.
00:55I'm a firm believer in things happen when they're supposed
01:01to happen, how they're supposed to happen,
01:03whether you understand it or not.
01:07I definitely was raised by a mother who
01:09was strong and resilient.
01:11But we didn't really know that she was sick.
01:15Between March and May of 2017, it just went really fast.
01:21And then she passed away.
01:25With my grandmother passing, I know
01:30my mom felt a void, like something
01:32was missing at that time.
01:35There was a secret of her origin.
01:40For me, the goal became finding out where I came from.
01:45But I remember my mother said to me, be careful
01:50and make sure that you're ready for what you might find.
01:55All right, guys, let's hurry, hurry, hurry.
02:08Let's go.
02:08While we're standing there, we got a backpack.
02:10Let's get it in a locker.
02:12I am an assistant principal at a public high school
02:17in the south suburbs of Chicago.
02:19I started teaching 34 years ago.
02:23I was one of the first African-American teachers
02:27certified in the building.
02:29All right, here come my crew.
02:31Good morning.
02:32Can you hurry up?
02:33The bell already rang.
02:35As a teacher, I've always kind of gravitated toward what
02:39we call the at-risk students, because I understand very
02:43clearly struggling with challenges.
02:48My trauma stems from the hidden history within my family,
02:53secrets from before I was ever born.
02:59I was born in August of 1966.
03:01I came home with my parents December 6th.
03:08There were pictures of me where my dad's holding me
03:11at Christmas time.
03:15I was raised in a good home.
03:18I remember my grandfather had a farm.
03:20We had a pony that my grandfather had for us
03:24when we would come visit in the summer.
03:26And then I have this memory from around kindergarten,
03:33five years old.
03:34It was just, I don't know, like a little doctor's office.
03:38I was sitting someplace that I overheard a conversation
03:43where my mother said I was adopted.
03:49I knew what the word meant, but I didn't understand maybe fully
03:54how that, you know, was me.
03:59I remember asking my mom.
04:01So she explained it.
04:04Yes, you're adopted.
04:09And so I remember going to school and telling kids,
04:13I'm adopted.
04:14I'm adopted.
04:16One of my school girls on the playground, she said to me,
04:21well, that means your brother is not really your brother.
04:25And it was hurtful.
04:28You always want to know.
04:30You're always curious about who your parents are,
04:32where you come from.
04:37Much of my life has been centered around one question.
04:41Who is my birth mother?
04:44I was in junior high, maybe 10, 11 years old.
04:47I was snoop.
04:48My mother would have drawers that she'd keep things in.
04:52I found my birth certificate.
04:55And at that time, you could not access your original birth
04:59certificate that was issued at birth.
05:02So the only name that's on that birth certificate
05:05would be your adoptive parent's name.
05:08Even the hospital was not there.
05:11So I thought maybe I could find out what
05:14hospital I was born in.
05:18I began dialing into hospitals and asking them
05:22if they could tell me how many baby girls were born
05:26on my birth date.
05:28And there were so many people born the same day as me.
05:33Like, I think I just realized how futile that was.
05:40I remember thinking, if my birth mother gave me up for adoption,
05:44then maybe there was a reason why.
05:47And maybe this isn't going to be this fairytale ending.
05:51And it was like, pump the brakes.
05:56Over the next 25 years, life happened.
05:59I got married, had my kids, Cameron and Colin.
06:03Still, I never gave up on my mission,
06:06to uncover the truth about my birth mother.
06:14Nobody's eating my vegetable.
06:15That my salad, this is a beautiful salad.
06:18Well, you know, today is our cheat day.
06:21Um, I think it is interesting to reflect on where we started
06:29and then where we are now.
06:32My dad said, Jen, she's adopted too.
06:37And having this cousin who was also adopted,
06:41there was a sameness there.
06:43I appreciated that.
06:45And that set the seeds for what was to come.
06:48Like, you were a tutor.
06:49Jennifer.
06:50Like, you prepared me for the inevitable,
06:54and you set it off.
06:57Well, you know, I feel honored that you trusted me.
07:00So in 2011, adoptees in Illinois could request
07:04the original birth certificate.
07:06I got my original birth certificate in 2012.
07:09I think I got mine January, February 2012.
07:13From there, it was just, we were, we were in it.
07:20After 30 years, I finally got it.
07:24My original unredacted birth certificate.
07:27It had where my birth mother was living at the time,
07:32and it had her name.
07:34Like, oh, we have it.
07:36Oh, my God.
07:37Like, that's her name.
07:39Deborah.
07:41And the name that I was born with was Kelly Ann.
07:45My mother's age was there.
07:49She was young.
07:50She was 15.
07:51The father was not listed.
07:53Once I was able to see my birth mother's name,
07:58then it was like, okay,
08:00now I have some place to go with this.
08:03I remember being in the room, like, in her room.
08:08When she had opened it, there was excitement.
08:11Like, this is the first step to kind of getting,
08:13you know, some more information.
08:15So the very first thing was,
08:19if my birth mother was born in Harvey,
08:23what high school would she have gone to in 1966?
08:29There were two.
08:33One of the high schools at the time was predominantly white,
08:37so I'm like, nope, that's not going to be it.
08:39Then another high school, that's where I hit.
08:46I remember touching the yearbook and just thinking,
08:50this person is real.
08:54This name, now I can put a face to it.
08:59I got her transcript.
09:05That was the golden ticket.
09:08It had Debra's address at the time,
09:11her parents' names,
09:13what both parents did for a living.
09:16I was excited to have the information
09:19and excited to share it with my mother.
09:23But I held off picking up the phone and calling her
09:26because by now we found out that my mother had cancer.
09:39In May of 2017, my grandma passed away.
09:44We were all very sad, devastated.
09:48Having lost my mother,
09:51now to go look for another mother,
09:54I felt guilty about that.
09:57And so, I stopped.
10:06When you're grieving,
10:07you want to be surrounded by family.
10:10So, when talking to my mom,
10:12I told her,
10:13into the new year,
10:14we should probably start looking again
10:16for your birth mother.
10:17I found the service
10:25that would do background searches on people.
10:28So, I put in my birth mother's name
10:31and it populates people who are associated with her.
10:36I would cross-reference to Facebook.
10:39Ben Chambers.
10:47Was he my sibling?
10:49Was he the person who could connect me to my birth mother?
10:59I can see all of the people
11:01that Ben follows on social media.
11:04People that also came up in the background search.
11:08These could be my siblings.
11:13We figure out that Ben goes to a church
11:16that's really nearby.
11:18I made a decision to go to the church.
11:22When I drove into the parking lot,
11:25I was like,
11:26oh my God, what do I do?
11:27I'm not sure I want to do it.
11:33I was like, okay,
11:34this is really happening.
11:36Get it together.
11:37It was a big moment for Lisa.
11:41Now or never, really.
11:43What, was I coming back the next weekend?
11:46No, we're going to do this today.
11:48No, we're going to do this today.
11:58A woman walks up to me and she says,
12:01are you Reverend Ben?
12:03Can we talk for a minute?
12:05And I say, hey, we can talk right here.
12:08The woman says, do you have a place that's a little more private?
12:15So this is like all the flags.
12:17But I feel like this nudge.
12:19And you should sit down and talk with this lady.
12:22That's when I started thinking to myself,
12:25well, what if this is not what you think it is?
12:30What if this might get real?
12:32Are you ready for that?
12:34Are you ready for that?
12:37So I sit down.
12:39The lady sits down and she moves her chair closer.
12:41So I'm like, oh crap.
12:42Like, what's about to happen?
12:45I was nervous.
12:46And so she starts talking and she says,
12:53I think that you and I are related.
12:58I've got cousins I've never met before.
13:01So that didn't alarm me.
13:03What alarmed me was what she said next.
13:07She says, I believe that we are brother and sister.
13:11The search took 37 years.
13:16And the fact that I was going to be introducing myself
13:20as a family member, I had to bring it.
13:24So I had the birth certificate.
13:28I had the yearbook photos.
13:30I had the transcripts.
13:32She's laying out all of this evidence.
13:35As we're talking and I'm giving him this information,
13:37I literally had it spread out on the table.
13:40And he was like, OK, OK, OK.
13:45In that moment, this woman started to look like my mom.
13:53I'm starting to recognize this woman's eyes
13:55and her cheekbones.
13:58And so I felt like this nudge is like, yes,
14:02she's telling the truth.
14:05So I don't know how long the pause was.
14:07It felt like a lifetime.
14:08And I'm sitting there like, OK, like, what is happening?
14:14I wanted him to understand very clearly.
14:16I don't want anything from you.
14:18But I do want my birth mother to know that I'm fine.
14:24And then to me, it was just like this rush of emotion.
14:28Ben told me that in 2004, our birth mother had died of cancer.
14:39So I was never going to meet her.
14:43So we both were emotional.
14:45It was the rush of emotion of, at that time,
14:51not knowing the details about how Lisa came into existence.
14:58He says something like, well, let's exchange information.
15:02And I was like, OK.
15:03So I called my sister, Camille.
15:11I had no idea that the phone call that I received
15:15from Ben that day would change my life forever.
15:20The tone in his voice kind of startled me.
15:24I said, do you think it's possible
15:27that mom would have gave birth to a daughter in the 60s?
15:34And Camille was basically like, yes.
15:39I always knew that there was something that happened to my mom.
15:47Growing up, I was always with my mother and my grandmother.
15:52They would be in the living room talking,
15:54and I would be upstairs.
15:58They would be talking in kind of cold.
16:02You know, they would say, well, you know, he, you know,
16:06did this, or he would say this.
16:09And they would always say he or him.
16:13I remember the frustration that I felt from my mother
16:17and kind of like a dismissiveness from my grandmother.
16:22And then as a child, I really didn't put it together.
16:26But it seemed like that day, everything just started coming back.
16:32Finding out what really happened to my mom, it scared me.
16:41This is a lot.
16:42Like, this is going to take a lot to unpack,
16:44a lot to figure out.
16:45So Camille, she starts immediately like Sherlock Holmes.
16:51I immediately called our uncle, my mother's brother.
16:57Said, does my, did my mother have a child at 15?
17:01And I felt like he was pushing me off.
17:06You know, why are you asking me this?
17:08And he kind of paused.
17:11And he said, you know, you should talk to your dad.
17:18I was on my way to church, and my son called me.
17:22And he said, do you know a lady named Lisa?
17:25I said, no, I do not.
17:27And he said, well, this lady cornered me in church.
17:29She might be my sister.
17:31And mom is her mother.
17:42The other day, a minister of the church,
17:45he was talking about your past.
17:47Will sometimes catch up with you.
17:51And then it dined on me.
17:52It came back just like daylight.
17:56That storm is coming.
17:59It was an awakening of what is to come.
18:09So the search is complete.
18:11Who has my birth story?
18:13That's what I was looking forward to at that point.
18:16You know, the things that my siblings could tell me
18:20about my birth mother.
18:23Ben said he was going to call me.
18:25So I think it was just this nervous anticipation,
18:28hoping that I would get the call.
18:32She felt a good vibe at first.
18:35But then it was kind of like, OK, now what?
18:37Now what's next?
18:38So then day number two,
18:41now I'm beginning to feel like,
18:43hmm, we might have a problem here.
18:46She's telling me I haven't heard anything from them.
18:49I'm like, oh, they hate me.
18:51There is rejection.
18:52They're rejecting me.
18:53You know how your mind is going a thousand miles.
19:03Why all of a sudden did this woman show up?
19:06See, she finally found this.
19:09My dad is basically like, yes.
19:12This is true.
19:13Your mom did have a daughter.
19:14Gave the child up for adoption.
19:16Yes.
19:17It made me angry.
19:18It made me feel like, you know,
19:22why didn't anyone tell me?
19:24I had to come to grips with the fact
19:28that mom took this family secret to the grave.
19:35And so that week, talking to my dad,
19:39talking to my siblings,
19:41at the time I was still the only point of contact for Lisa.
19:45So my call to Lisa was to say, hey, let's get together.
19:50And it just kind of snowballed from there.
19:54Every piece of information I learned about my birth mother,
19:57Deborah, was priceless.
20:00It was crazy to learn that she had grown up in Markham, Illinois,
20:05not far from where I had settled down and raised my own family.
20:10So from what I understand of the family history,
20:13Deborah's mother met her stepfather,
20:16and they got married when Deborah was about three years old.
20:21Then Deborah's stepfather and her mother
20:24went on to have two more children.
20:27So Deborah and I, we were high school sweethearts.
20:33We attended Thornton Township High School,
20:36which is located in Harvey, Illinois.
20:38She was a great person to me.
20:41Very exciting to be around.
20:42I cheer for her most of the time.
20:45A friend of mine introduced us.
20:48I know that my mom initially was not that interested in him.
20:54But my dad writes a letter to my mom's mom.
20:58Like, hey, please tell Deborah to reconsider.
21:00Like, I'm a really nice guy.
21:02Like, all these things.
21:04And obviously, it worked.
21:11The summer of 1966, I went by there to her house one day,
21:16and her mother told me she was visiting her grandmother.
21:20I thought maybe she'd be gone about a couple of weeks.
21:23It was really the entire summer that she was gone.
21:29And she didn't come back until school started again.
21:34And she wasn't the same.
21:41She wanted me to accompany her to Christ Temple Church.
21:47She wanted to go and talk to the minister there.
21:51So I stood outside until she finished.
21:54And then walking home, and she didn't talk about anything.
22:09After that, we both attended Thornton Community College.
22:15We were still dating, having fun.
22:18One day, I had went on and proposed to her.
22:20I said, what do you think about getting married?
22:24And she said, let me think about it.
22:30Some months passed.
22:32And Deborah asked me, have you ever wondered,
22:36really, was I at my grandmother's house during the summer
22:40that she wasn't there?
22:42I said, no, I just believed that you
22:45was at your grandmother's house.
22:50She said, after I tell you something,
22:52you may not want to marry me.
22:55She was very blunt.
22:56I am not a virgin.
23:01And she didn't get into who the person was.
23:04She just said that she had a child.
23:07But I had to give her up for adoption.
23:13I got quiet for a few minutes.
23:18And then I said, so?
23:23I said, I'm marrying you as you are.
23:29A lot went on in that house.
23:31I was born to keep my mouth shut.
23:40But after Lisa found us, the kids kept asking me and stuff.
23:45So finally, I told them exactly what happened to her.
23:52So my dad kind of filled in the blanks
23:55of what we were missing.
23:57Enough for the full weight of the story
24:01to kind of come down like,
24:03OK, this is pretty nasty.
24:06Like, this is pretty ugly.
24:15There is this euphoria
24:16when you are looking for something
24:19and you find it.
24:20But when you get an answer,
24:23you have more questions.
24:25Now the time had come to meet
24:28the rest of the Chambers family,
24:30my family,
24:32and find out why
24:33I had been given up for adoption.
24:36I arrived to the church.
24:37Camille and Ben were already there.
24:41And as soon as she walked through the door,
24:44I was like, oh, my God.
24:46Like, that is my mother
24:47walking through the door.
24:49Just like with Ben,
24:51I brought all of the artifacts
24:53that I had
24:54in my head.
24:56When I saw that birth certificate
24:57and I said,
24:58this is for real,
24:59it was a goosebump moment
25:01seeing that.
25:02I was super nervous.
25:04My face was hot.
25:05I felt like I was shaking.
25:08There was just this anxiety
25:10in the air immediately.
25:12And then transitioning to questions
25:18about what they knew
25:21and what they didn't know.
25:22I asked,
25:23well, do you know
25:24who my father is?
25:29I remember Camille did a lot
25:30of the talking.
25:31She's in this place
25:32where it's raw.
25:35You can't, like,
25:36just throw the truth
25:37on other people.
25:37But this secret
25:39needs to come out.
25:43And so I'm listening
25:44to Camille say,
25:47our mother's stepfather
25:49is your father.
25:50And she said,
25:56you know,
25:58the sexual assault,
25:59it happened
26:00as early as,
26:01you know,
26:02like seven or eight years old.
26:06And it was,
26:07you know,
26:07over the course
26:08of several years.
26:13Your biological father
26:14raped your biological mom
26:15and this is how
26:16you were brought
26:17into this world.
26:23It was just like,
26:24it was,
26:25it was information overload.
26:30It was just so overwhelming.
26:33Then I just,
26:34I blacked out.
26:35It was just too much.
26:37I remember saying
26:38that I want to stop.
26:39I need to take a break.
26:41And then I started weeping.
26:48The weight of
26:49the circumstances
26:51surrounding Lisa's birth,
26:52it felt like
26:53a world collapsing.
26:55I felt pain
26:57projecting
26:58what she must
26:59have gone through.
27:02You know,
27:02thinking about
27:04the sexual abuse,
27:05thinking about
27:06carrying a child
27:07that you,
27:08you know,
27:08maybe you didn't wish.
27:09At 15,
27:10you don't have a choice.
27:11She wasn't given a choice.
27:16I called our uncle
27:17because he was
27:18in the house.
27:19He's her sibling.
27:20He would know directly.
27:22I felt like he was squirming
27:24as I,
27:25as he was talking to me.
27:26Like,
27:26why are you asking me this?
27:31He,
27:32he just kept rejecting it.
27:36You know,
27:36and to have him
27:38just loft it off.
27:40And it's like,
27:42you're protecting your father,
27:44who's not only
27:45a pedophile,
27:46a rapist,
27:47but you're protecting this.
27:49And I,
27:50and I couldn't understand that.
27:55At one point,
27:56he did tell me
27:57my mother
27:58was not
27:59the first woman
28:00that his father
28:01stepped out
28:02on his mother
28:02stepped out
28:03on his mother with.
28:04I was just like,
28:05woman,
28:06you know,
28:07mom was a child.
28:10This was not
28:11like,
28:12you know,
28:12she was dating
28:13an older guy
28:14and she got pregnant
28:15as a teenager.
28:16This was her stepfather
28:19that had children
28:22with her mother.
28:26You know,
28:27we're talking about a,
28:28you know,
28:29a 50 plus year old secret.
28:31The reality is
28:33there,
28:34there are people
28:35who were very content
28:36with taking this
28:38to their grave.
28:39and that does not
28:41help
28:42the victim at all.
28:44It gives power
28:45to the victimizer.
28:48I just remember like,
28:49just really sitting
28:50at home
28:51and
28:52having a difficult time,
28:54just realizing
28:55the age my,
28:56my daughters were at
28:57at that time,
28:57that my mother
28:59at that age
28:59was being
29:00sexually abused,
29:02raped by,
29:03by an adult.
29:07I absolutely
29:08felt betrayed
29:09by my uncle.
29:11I would travel out
29:13to visit my uncle
29:15and stay in the house
29:16and we would go to church
29:17and we'd reminisce
29:18about mom
29:19and about granny
29:20and this never came up.
29:22And, you know,
29:23and then when it does,
29:24he's being this,
29:26you know,
29:27protector of his father
29:28and it was just like,
29:29who are you
29:31and what is really going on?
29:38I woke up that Sunday
29:41and now I know
29:43that
29:44I am a product
29:45of this sexual assault.
29:49And with that truth
29:51came this enormous pain
29:52to my siblings
29:54who didn't even know
29:55I existed.
29:57The reality
29:58of it
29:59hit me in such a way
30:00that I remember feeling like
30:04maybe I should not have
30:05tried to find them
30:06because now
30:08they are carrying
30:10the weight of this truth
30:11about a sexual assault
30:13that happened to our mother.
30:16And I remember,
30:17I was weeping about that.
30:18It was like,
30:20so what do I symbolize?
30:22Am I the sister
30:24or am I now,
30:25you are this horrific thing
30:27that happened to our mother?
30:34It was a very,
30:35a very heavy and dark
30:37couple of weeks
30:39to navigate
30:40and kind of deal with.
30:42You start to think about how,
30:44like how could this happen?
30:45How could this persist?
30:50After all this time,
30:52I'd been given this gift
30:53of discovering my birth mother
30:55only to learn about the trauma
30:57she went through
30:58to bring me into this world.
31:01To be this 15-year-old,
31:04you're pregnant
31:05with your stepfather's child.
31:07How is this possible?
31:09When we were dating,
31:11I remember Deborah
31:12didn't want to go home
31:13at certain times
31:14and she didn't want to be there.
31:17So, you know,
31:18we would go out driving
31:19until almost the time
31:21when her mother
31:22would get home
31:23because her mother
31:25military worked nights.
31:30This when all this took place
31:31because she wasn't there.
31:33She was working nights
31:35and he had
31:38just total control over her.
31:42She was at an age
31:4415 years old or so.
31:46What could she do?
31:48When Deborah told me
31:53that she had a child,
31:56one thing just led up to
31:59that it was her stepfather.
32:03And then it dined on me,
32:04OK.
32:05That's why he had
32:06a smirk on his face
32:08every time I was over there.
32:10You know, like,
32:11it was a laughter smirk.
32:19She went to her mother,
32:20but she said,
32:22I don't think my mother
32:23believed me at first.
32:26It was her word
32:27against his word.
32:29He, you know,
32:30he denied it.
32:31And then there's the pastor.
32:36Deborah stopped going
32:38to the pastor
32:39for counseling
32:40because he said
32:41she must be enjoying
32:43doing it,
32:45being with her stepfather.
32:48She must because
32:49she came to him
32:50and not the police.
32:55In my mom's situation,
32:56I feel like there
32:59are multiple settings
33:00in which she was failed.
33:04From the home front
33:06to the church setting,
33:09the two places
33:10where my mom should have
33:11got hope, help,
33:14she got none of that.
33:16I can't imagine
33:18my mom being 15,
33:20navigating this.
33:27So at some point,
33:29I did speak to
33:31Deborah's half-brother,
33:32who would be my uncle.
33:37He asked me,
33:39was I interested
33:40in meeting
33:41my birth father?
33:46And I said no.
33:51When you kind of realize
33:52who your father is,
33:53how that came about,
33:54it was definitely
33:55a hard pill
33:56for all of us
33:57to swallow.
33:59And being a woman,
34:00you know,
34:01you kind of
34:01are heartbroken
34:03about
34:04just what Deborah
34:05had to go through.
34:07It was even harder
34:08to deal with the fact
34:09that while my birth mother
34:11had suffered so much,
34:14my birth father,
34:15her abuser,
34:16was still alive.
34:18She died without
34:19ever seeing him
34:20brought to justice.
34:22We wanted to fight back
34:23for our mother
34:25because, you know,
34:26we're doing
34:26what she couldn't do.
34:28There's no statute
34:29of limitations.
34:30Why aren't we trying
34:32to press charges,
34:34get this guy arrested?
34:42Ben and I
34:43went on this journey.
34:44We went downtown
34:45and we searched records
34:48for if there was
34:49any court case,
34:51anything in the files.
34:54The only thing
34:55that we could find
34:56was our grandmother's
34:57divorce proceedings.
35:00It looked like
35:01it was brought up
35:02that the 15-year-old
35:03stepdaughter
35:04was pregnant
35:05and, you know,
35:06can we press charges?
35:08What can we do
35:08about this?
35:09And the court
35:11actually said,
35:12no, nothing.
35:16Because he was
35:17a family member,
35:18charges couldn't be
35:19pressed during
35:20the divorce proceedings.
35:24If we couldn't
35:25do it in court,
35:25I suggested
35:27that we make signs
35:29and go down
35:30to his house
35:31and get a bullhorn
35:32and say,
35:32a pedophile lives here,
35:34a rapist lives here.
35:37I don't care how old he is,
35:38he's a pedophile.
35:40You were a pedophile then.
35:41You still are a pedophile.
35:43You are a rapist.
35:44And I just, you know,
35:47just had these thoughts
35:48of, you know,
35:49him looking and saying,
35:50who is this?
35:51And, you know,
35:52us being here and saying,
35:53we're Deborah's children.
35:56But I couldn't get anybody
35:57to do that with me.
36:00I came to this conclusion
36:02that, like,
36:03we're fighting for her
36:05and maybe that's not
36:06really what she wanted.
36:08Maybe what she wanted
36:13was us embracing Lisa
36:15and bringing Lisa in.
36:16I feel like
36:18that would have been something
36:20that mom would have done.
36:25It's painful to know
36:26that my birth mother,
36:27Deborah,
36:28died without ever
36:29seeing her children
36:30in reunion.
36:31But we are all committed
36:33to keeping our new
36:34family bond strong
36:36in her honor.
36:37You're meant to be.
36:39Yeah.
36:40Right.
36:41Sometimes I call her daughter.
36:42I say,
36:43I'm going to start
36:44calling your daughter.
36:45And Deborah,
36:47she wanted to adopt her
36:49when she found her,
36:50bring her into the family.
36:52So,
36:53I was committed to that.
37:01That picture of all of us.
37:02Oh, yeah.
37:03No, it's not in there.
37:04This is pre-Civil Rights era.
37:06All five of us.
37:07Yeah.
37:08You know what they say,
37:09things that are done in the dark
37:10always come to life.
37:11Right.
37:12The truth always surfaces.
37:13Yeah.
37:14I'm glad we can look
37:15at pictures
37:16and resemblances
37:17because,
37:18you know,
37:19Sunday after
37:21I talked to you guys,
37:24like,
37:25I felt guilty about,
37:27you know,
37:30bringing you
37:31this information
37:32that I was a sister
37:33that you didn't know about.
37:36Did you all ever have
37:37any regrets?
37:38about,
37:40you know,
37:41the secret,
37:42so to speak,
37:43coming out?
37:44I'm glad that it was out.
37:46The secret was,
37:47was out.
37:48Yeah.
37:49You know.
37:50You are glad it's out?
37:51Mm-hmm.
37:52Because I, you know,
37:53after she had passed away,
37:54I was wondering,
37:55will we ever
37:56really meet you?
37:57Mm-hmm.
37:58Mm-hmm.
37:59Mm-hmm.
38:00And,
38:01I'm glad that we
38:02was able to meet you.
38:03Mm-hmm.
38:05We talked about that a lot,
38:06like,
38:07as we were navigating
38:08the space,
38:08being able to verbalize
38:09that the,
38:10it's not,
38:11the issue is not with you.
38:12Mm-hmm.
38:13The issue is with
38:14everything else surrounding
38:15that.
38:16Good situation.
38:17Yeah.
38:18The beauty that came out
38:19of meeting you,
38:20who you are,
38:22and who Cameron is,
38:23and Colin is,
38:24I just think that that was
38:26able to cover a lot
38:27of what mom went through.
38:28Mom.
38:29But it's like,
38:30oh my gosh,
38:31we have another sister
38:32and two more,
38:33another niece and another
38:34nephew.
38:34Like, this is awesome.
38:36I'm glad that I had a desire
38:38to find my family.
38:40I'm glad that someone
38:41desired to find me.
38:43You know,
38:44it could have gone a lot
38:45of different ways.
38:46Easter 2018 was tough
38:56because it was a year
38:58to the date almost
38:59of when my mother was
39:00diagnosed with cancer.
39:01I remember sitting on the
39:03couch at Ben's house
39:05thinking that I'd lost
39:06everything.
39:07But if we think about
39:09what Easter represents
39:11with, you know,
39:13rebirth and renewal,
39:14I think it was a good
39:16first holiday
39:18or celebration
39:19or family gathering
39:20to have
39:21because it symbolized
39:23a new family.
39:28The connection
39:29that I wanted,
39:30that I hoped for
39:31had Deborah
39:32still been alive,
39:33I don't think
39:34I'll ever be able
39:35to capture that
39:36because she's just not here.
39:40Have a good weekend.
39:41Happy Friday.
39:42As I find out things
39:43about my birth mother,
39:45things like she was
39:46also in education,
39:48things like Camille
39:50said our hands
39:51look alike
39:52and my kids even
39:53saw a picture
39:54where they said
39:55they gave them chills,
39:56we look so much alike.
39:58I think maybe that is
40:00a level of connectedness.
40:02Good to see you.
40:03Good to see you.
40:04If my birth mother was here,
40:06Oh, this Chicago Jew.
40:08The message that I gave
40:09to Ben
40:10when we met that Sunday
40:12would pretty much
40:13be the same.
40:14We supposed to do
40:15that other one.
40:16You know, I would
40:17just basically
40:18want her to know
40:19that I've had a good life,
40:21I've had a happy life.
40:23That, you know,
40:24I feel like the strength
40:26that I have
40:28is in my DNA.
40:29I definitely was raised
40:30by a mother who was
40:31strong and resilient
40:33but then to find out
40:34that I was birthed
40:36by a mother
40:37who also had
40:38this resiliency
40:39and just incredible strength.
40:42I just take heart,
40:44you know, that I can
40:45be a part of that legacy
40:46and keep it going.
40:47Why does he not want me
40:56to be around his family?
40:58That's what started
40:59making me feel like,
41:00is he hiding something
41:01from me?
41:02He just said to us,
41:03you think you know
41:04who he is
41:05but you don't know
41:05who he really is.
41:06This was big
41:08front page news
41:09for weeks.
41:11Man, he was able
41:13to do that
41:13and nobody knew
41:15for so long?
41:15I was taking the secret
41:18to my grave.
41:19I'm like, oh my God.
41:21This is not real.
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