Yeah, my dad was the unknown sibling for about forty years. My granddad had walked out when dad was 2 and gone back to his first wife. The "other" family was never mentioned for about forty years, till a geneology book on our last name was pub'd, and Papa Al couldn't get anyone to believe that the "James E." in north Mississippi was his son. So at 42, my dad got a Christmas card from a father he'd never known. Definitely the weirdest twist of my family life.

It was great getting to meet Papa Al and the "new" extended family we had in Texas, but the start was quite awkward. Papa Al died maybe 15 years ago, and i was really glad to get to meet him, especially for my dad's sake. But there's always that lingering, unresolved thought about whether there are other wings of the family we'll just never know about or meet.