I had no idea that a normal trip to see my mother’s grave would turn my life upside down. But that’s exactly what happened when I saw a stranger throwing away the flowers I had put there with love. I had no idea that this chance meeting would lead to the shocking discovery that I had a sister I didn’t know I had.
I had been going to my parents’ graves for weeks and leaving new flowers on my mom’s grave. I kept finding them gone, though, while my dad’s stayed the same. It looked like someone was taking them off on purpose.
I was determined to find the person who did it, so I got there early one morning and saw a woman throwing away flowers from my mother’s grave without caring. I walked up to her, my feelings running high. “Why are you doing this?” I asked for.
I was shocked by her answer. “Your mother wouldn’t mind sharing,” she said with a smile toward them. What she said next, though, really shocked me: “I’m her daughter too.”
My world fell apart. Is it possible? Had my mom kept such a deep secret from me? The woman in front of me, who I thought was my sister, looked just as hurt as I did.
While I was still shocked, angry, and hurt, the truth started to sink in. But something in her words struck a chord with me. Another painful lie that had been kept from us for too long hurt us both.
“But maybe we don’t need to hurt each other all the time.” My words hung in the air like a thin line between two strangers cut by blood.
The weight of our shared past started to lift as we stood there. We began to talk and share feelings and stories. The pain of the past slowly gave way to a sense of understanding and relationship as time went on.
I met someone out of the blue and found both a sister and a part of myself. It wouldn’t be easy, but I knew we’d get through it together, taking one step at a time to heal from the hurts of our shared past.
