Thread by @Pinche_Pi

STORYTIME THREAD:

The 2nd anniversary of the Christmas gift that changed my family forever

My mom hosts Christmas Eve for pre-Christmas festivities and gift exchange, and two years ago, I got double-gifted a DNA kit from Ancestry.

My wife had bought it for me already and usually they coordinate gifts, but mom's was opened first...wife was pissed for some reason...

...her anger seemed out of proportion for something this small, and I assured her we could return hers to not piss off mom and use the money for something else, nbd right?

Well, something was worming its way into her mind, and she was unconsciously fighting it

Quick background: Mrs Pinche did not know who her father was the first 40 years of her life. Her mom knew but refused to tell her for reasons we still to this day do not know or understand. Mrs P remembered looking in her baby book we hen she was ten and saw a name, but....

...she couldn't remember it. She asked for the baby book when she was in her early 30's, we have a daughter, and thought she'd like to see it.

When we received the book from GMA, that page was torn out 😐

This has been the source of animosity between them for ever

Back to the drive home Xmas Eve

Mrs P is quiet the entire drive home, and upon entering our house, she says, " you know,maybe I could use the extra DNA kit, who knows, maybe I'll find my dad lol"

Not likely, but you never know

About a week later after all the holiday chaos ended, she finally got around to busting out the kit and spit into the tube, and sealed it up

I procrastinated a few weeks longer than she did, but I sent mine first.

Her box sat on our side table by the from door for a month

I finally asked her if she needed me to take it to the PO, and she broke down in tears

She was terrified

40 years of not knowing and there in the box on the table was a possible chance to finally know who her dad is. I thought she'd be more excited, not scared...

I was wrong

40 years is a LOT of buildup

What if he's a dick?
What if he's a rapist?
What if he's a bum?
What if he's rich?
What if he's dead?

And worst of all, what if he's alive and just doesn't care

Lots of conflicting feels

But finally, two months later, she found the courage

A few weeks later, she gets an email that her results are ready

She's hoping a name will jump out of her memory of that one torn out baby book page with a first name she almost can grasp...nope

The first names didn't jog a memory, but a funny thing happened...

All of the top associated DNA peeps had the same last name of <redacted>

That's weird, we both thought, the last name wasn't any we recognized, but now that she started, she wasn't giving up.
She emailed all of the top names with a simple query:

Hi,

I recently took the Ancestry test and do not know who my father is. The results show a lot of people with your last name associated with my DNA and I hope you may have some clues as to why. I hope you can help.

And she sent it to each person with the associated DNA

Only one responded

She needed to check in with family first, but she thinks she knows who her father may be.

They exchanged numbers, gathered photos, and met for lunch (she lives less than a mile from Mrs P's work, small fucking world, right?)

They meet, they share photos, and pretty.much confirms that they of a story (that turned out about my wife) of the early circumstances.

Nothing nefarious fwiw...although my wife's crazy mom factors in plenty 😬

Her aunt produces a photo of my wife's grandma in her early twenties (she died the weekend my wife made contact in her 90's), my wife produces a photo of herself in her twenties...

Y'all, they were fucking twins 50 years separated... uncanny

This is definitely her family 🤗

I'll skip a ton of boring shit, but because of the death her grandma (her father's mother), it took longer to meet the first time

I went with, both as a comforting presence, but also to help remember things said, and to contextualize it for her, her emotions were runningwild

He's not a dick,not a rapist, not any of the horrible possibilities she anticipated

He's a great fucking guy

Totes ackward first dinner to be sure, but Mrs P didn't fuck around with the questions of her origin as she didn't know if this was their last meeting. It wasn't 😁

The following #593days were filled with camping trips, concerts, holiday dinners, etc...all the things she never had

It was bizarre, and awesome, and uncomfortable, and fun, and on top of it, the rest of the family is awesome too! 🎉

She never felt like she fit with her side of the family, well, that wasn't an issue here.

Peas and carrots

She found her peeps 🤗

Her father was into politics and hated Trump, we hit it off immediately as you can imagine 🤣

Life never turns out stories this good does it? It was surreal...

...and then surreal turned it up a notch. We get the call last month. He collapsed, heart stopped, rushed to ER...

He passed away at 63 😭

WHAT CRUEL FUCKING JOKE IS THIS?

What. The. Fuck?!

To say the last month has been equal parts grief, loss, and bewilderment would be an understatement

"This is so unfair, this is bullshit, what the fuck!" We yell and cry and mutter

Most of all...."why?"

Truth is: we don't know why

But we do know that my amazing wife got #593days with her "pop" that she never would've had if she didn't try.

We have a whole new family that has welcomed us into their homes as if we were always there.

We were gifted 593 days of getting to know a wonderful man, and as the pain slowly subsides, we have those memories, pictures, and a she-shed he helped us build literally the weekend before he passed

We packed a lot of time together in those short amount of days

We are both devastated and elated

Befuddled at the circumstances and thankful we were able to be a part of their family while he was alive.

My wife was able to answer almost all of her 40 years of wondering questions

She now has a bonus mom 💕 two brothers & a sister

Even in tragedy we feel blessed

I don't know if there is a point to this thread other than I needed to share both the joy and heartbreak of the best Christmas gift I ever received

Also, enjoy the time you have with your family, you never really know how long you have them 💕

Merry Christmas tweeples 🎄🎁

I wish you all the joy and love that #593days brought our family 🤗

^^^Almost forgot a key piece of evidence in this story:

The reason she didn't recognize the names from her results.

Her father goes by his middle name and all of his official public records use his legal first name. The middle name was in the baby book. It wouldn't have helped