Family secrets

If you missed the Oprah show yesterday, you missed a doozie.  Miss O announced a family secret that she'd been in the dark about until recently--that she had a half sister that had been given up for adoption by her mother, when O was living with her dad and stepmother, in another part of the country.  To say that she was shocked by this new information would be an understatement--especially after all of the years she's spent reuniting other family members.  She said she'd always thought to herself "I wonder what that feels like?"  I think she certainly knows now.

The specifics of the story are miracles in and of themselves, from her recently found sister's name being the same name as the younger sister of Oprah's that died after a drug overdose, to the fact that they so closely resembled each other.  The list just went on and on.  It was almost unbelievable.  But the thing I think that grabbed me most was Oprah's reaction to how this whole story had unraveled itself.  She cried when she first attempted to tell the audience how her new half sister had handled knowing she was related to Oprah.  It seems her sister had suffered several denials and rebuffs from their mother, in their mother's attempt to maintain the secret.   The sister had told her pastor what was happening and been given counsel numerous times.  The sister said she had given it all to God to work out.

But most impressive was the fact that both the sister and her two grown children had known Oprah was their immediate relative for 5 years, and had not ever attempted to sell their story to the tabloids, or profit from it in any way.  They did not seek to "out Oprah" or her mother, or embarrass either of them in any way.  All the sister wanted was to connect with her family, since as an orphan, she'd never had one.

Oprah shared on TV that her other sister, the one that had died of an OD, had sold a story about Oprah to the tabloids, and that as a public person she's been used and "sold out" many times--even by family--but not this time.  She said that was the number one reason she wanted to meet this new sister was because of the sister's integrity and dignity in the way she handled this painful situation.

More may come to light about this revelation--maybe not.  But for a woman in the public eye to have someone so fully and completely have her back-- and then turn out to be family--must have knocked the stuffing out of Oprah.  What a mind blower...