What’s that Melody

During my freshman year, something major happened in my family’s life. For Christmas during my freshman year my dad took an Ancestry DNA test. We found out a few things when my dad got the DNA test back. The most shocking of which was something my dad took a little while longer to tell me and my sisters. We had an aunt that we never knew about.

My reaction came out of pure surprise and shock. That was the emotions I felt, but there was also so many questions going on in my head. Who was this person? What happened? When did this all start? Where are they? Where are they from? Why are we just finding this out now? Finally, How did all of this come to light? All my questions were soon answered by my dad. He told me her name was Melody. She was born and raised not too far from us here in Maine, and still lived here. As for what happened this is where the story gets interesting. One thing I did not know about my grandfather was that he slept around. Even when he was in his first marriage. Fortunately for our family, she was born before my dad when he was with a girl in high school, but my dads’ family would not be surprised if there were more out there. We as a family assume that my grandfather never knew about melody as we could not ask him because he was recently deceased. Why was actually one of the more important questions I asked, I asked him why he hadn’t told is prior to now?

How he explained it was when he took his DNA test he was looking at people related to us and a Melody Spencer came up along with her son. The weird thing to him was how close they came up as. Next to her name it said closer than cousins. He said that he contacted her son then her. Through their conversations eventually my dad sent one email to her “I think we might be half siblings”. When he brought this up to her she went to talk to her mom. At first she was reluctant to answer, but eventually she confirmed all the suspicions.

Soon after we found out we got to meet melody as she came over and talked and we just all got to know each other. As the years have gone by though a little shaky at the start while trying to get used to each other things are great now. She comes to family gatherings and brings her fiance, and we all have a wonderful time. I guess you could say it is our own little parent trap, and that we all lived happily ever after. With the way my family works if there are more half siblings out there because there may be we will welcome them into the fold and try to get to know them as best as we can that is if they want to. If not they are missing out on a wonderful family but that is on them. My new aunt gets along very well with our family and she loves us. We might not be red head twins separated at birth and we might not have brought romance back to our parents on the boat it all got started on, or even met at camp.

What matters though is like in the parent trap we are united and we love each other more than life itself. To us family, means everything it does not matter if you are new to the family or have always been part of the family we have your back and you have ours. My family sure had a crazy journey over the past couple years, but that is no different than our normal craziness. We just added a new member who accepts and joins us as we are. I through this experience learned to expect the unexpected but I think not much could be more unexpected than that.

I learned that things won’t always be how the seemed to be from this as well because I learned that my grandpa was not the man I always thought that he was. I knew that he and my dad did not get along for a while because of some things that happened in their past, but eventually they moved past their differences and repaired their relationship so that my grandfather could be in his grandchildren’s life. I won’t ever hate my grandfather because of what he did. Ultimately, he is family and family means everything to me.

I learned that in the face of a difficult situation there can be good that comes out of it. I love my aunt melody even though I have not known her as long as my other family. She has become part of my life and my family’s life for the better. I guess you could say that though learning to expect the unexpected I learned more lessons as well that I will take with me for the rest of my life because, it’s not every day you find out you have a member of your family that you never knew about.

Photo on Foter.com