The Biggest Secrets People Learned Cleaning Out A Late Relative's Home
How well did you really know the people who are no longer with us?
Many of us present our best selves to our friends and relatives but do you share with them your deepest, darkest insecurities and secrets?
Maybe you do. But there are plenty of others who take their secrets to the grave.
But those closely guarded secrets or the truest identities can come to light posthumously in many forms, giving a glimpse of who they were to the people they've left behind.
Curious to hear from strangers online, Redditor WhoAllIll asked:
"What secret was revealed when cleaning out the home of a deceased family member?"
Not everyone had pure morals or ethics.
Shady Business
"Elderly aunt had a hidden room with staircase to basement area no one knew about. She and her son had a meth lab. This was in the 90’s in Philly. Blew us all away."
– pekepeeps
Here's The Story
"We all knew this one uncle had a second family. We expected drama at the funeral."
"No one was expecting his third family to show up. Wife. Three kids. This new family knew the rest of the family by name from pictures. How we are all related, names, hobbies. That was a wildly bizarre experience."
– z-adventure
Late Discovery
"My dad passed away in 1994 (I was 28). While going through his safe I found some adoption papers. While reading through them I got excited at the prospect I might have a brother out there somewhere (I was raised as an only child) but couldn't understand why my parents never told me that they'd adopted a child but never told me. After rereading them, I realized that they papers were about me. After confronting my family about this turns out everyone - family, close friends, I mean everyone, knew I was adopted. Except me. That was a fun day."
– rolandblais
You never know about a person.
Once Upon A Cash-tress
"Many years ago I went with my dad and aunt to clean out my great uncle’s apartment after he passed away. He was never married, no kids, and lived (we thought) very poor. Tiny apartment with a twin bed, table and chair, a couple of pots and pans, a couple pants& shirts, and that’s basically it."
"As we stripped the bed and moved the mattress, we were shocked. He had hundreds of stacks of 10 dollar bills, wrapped in rubber bands, under his mattress. They were all 10 dollar bills. He lived during the Depression and didn’t trust banks, apparently, but we had no idea he had so much cash. He never spent it on anything. Just bundled it and saved it under his mattress. Some of the bills were so old and yellowed. It equaled thousands of dollars. We had no idea."
– Sostupid246
The Neat Hoarder
"My grandfather, who spoke English as a third language, was a bit of a hoarder. Lots of old sh*t stockpiled in his basement, but well organized. Imagine a generic episode of Hoarders, but with a prepper OCD vibe."
"Everything was sanitized, stacked/nested, and grouped logically. It was like the stock room for a store that wasn't yet sure what products it was selling and wanted to be ready."
"So we find a cylindrical container that was kinda heavy for its size, and it had the label 'OLD PENIS'. It was one of those black plastic film containers."
"Hesitant, but curious, we removed the lid."
"It contained a collection of one-cent pieces which had been minted in the first half of the 20th century."
"Part of me was disappointed, part of me was relieved."
"Edit: I'm glad so many people got a chuckle from the mystery of my grandfather's old penis. It was an innocent typo, but he was a jovial man and would have enjoyed knowing it made so many people laugh."
– funkme1ster
Unpublished
"We knew my originally British, naturalized Canadian great-grandmother had been an enthusiastic amateur historian, who had been fascinated by Britain’s war with Napoleon - not for the least reason because she was herself tangentially related to the Duke of Wellington’s family, via a cousin’s marriage to his son’s nephew, or some connection equally obscure and tenuous."
"What we didn’t know is that, likely in preparation for a book she never wrote, as a young woman she had actually interviewed several dozen elderly English, French and Spanish veterans about their experiences during that war - including three actual survivors of Waterloo (two English, one French), and an aide-de-camp to Spanish General Francisco Javier Castaños, at the time he handed the Napoleonic army its very first defeat in the field, and captured nearly 20,000 French troops at the Battle of Bailen (1808)."
"But there it was, stored in a wooden egg crate under her iron-framed bed, among old calendars, untested recipe clippings and copies of Family Circle magazine: a manuscript with nearly three hundred pages of transcribed military memoirs - all laid out in three languages (in which she was fluent) in her elegant, Spencerian hand."
"My parents donated her manuscript to the Imperial War Museum, where no doubt it will never have human eyes laid on it again."
– theartfulcodger
These Redditors share heartwarming discoveries.
Preparing For The Onward Journey
"My dad was in hospice at home for a couple months before he died of lung cancer, and when I went to clean out his house I found that he had already sorted and packed away most of his personal treasures in couple storage bins. It was heartbreaking all over again thinking of him sitting there packing up his own life knowing it was coming to an end."
– F0regn_Lawns
Messages From Beyond
"When my husband died a few years ago i found several notes/letters he had scattered in various places around our home, written to me in advance (he had terminal cancer & knew he was dying). some were marked 'open when you can't stop crying' 'open when the holidays are too rough' 'open when you have to put one of the cats to sleep'."
"They didn't contain any secrets, but they are heartbreakingly beautiful."
– miss_trixie
Sweet Keepsake
"My dad kept a handwritten note in his wallet containing my mom’s old address, phone number, and directions to her house from when they first started dating in the 70s. He had moved it from wallet to wallet over the years. ❤️ He just died this past March and that was one of the first things we found."
– Jinx5326
Scavenger Hunt
"That my dad hid money all over the house, not huge amounts mind you, but $60 here, $120 there. Felt like a bit of a scavenger hunt when we were cleaning out his stuff. He was always a bit of a sneakily generous guy, always gave me and my brothers a secret handshake with money tucked in his palm when we’d go back to school after a weekend home, etc, so wouldn’t be surprised if he’d done it intentionally. Made us smile every time we found some, iirc I think the final total was somewhere around $800."
– Mzunguman
Photographs are treasures.
When my family cleaned out the house of my father's aunt who lived in America, we found stacks of vintage photographs well before the advent of digital photography.
There were photos of my great aunt in Japan from when she was a teenager to photos of her and her husband at a Japanese internment camp at Heart Mountain, Wyoming.
There were no secrets uncovered but it was so profound poring through images capturing decades of her life captured on film.
The deaths of famous people can hit people really hard, especially when they were taken from us way too soon.
Curious to hear whose deaths had the biggest impact, Redditor Jrose798 asked:
"Which famous person’s death were you not ready for?"
They made us laugh when they were alive and broke our hearts when they passed.
The Comic Genius
"Robin Williams, he was a legend RIP."
– Thankless_ruler
"Robin Williams died on my 21st birthday. The thought that someone so f'king funny could be so sad hit me like a brick at that age. Haunted me throughout cake with my family. I still think about him all the time."
– BlazedInMyWinnie
Stand Up Legend
"George Carlin"
– eyes-of-strange-sins
We could use his insight these past 2 years. Rip George.
– GingerUsurperFans reflect on those who've made a huge impact on their lives.
He Brought Severus Snape To Life
"Alan Rickman."
"Man could have read the Tax Code, and I would have been in awe."
– lazyasdrmr
"By Grabthar's hammer... The taxes imposed by section 3201 shall be collected by the employer of the taxpayer by deducting the amount of the taxes from the compensation of the employee as and when paid."
– hymie0
Space Fan
"Neil Armstrong and Carrie Fisher. As a huge Star Wars and Space fan since forever, I hadn't even conceived the possibility that they would die someday, even if I was already 17 when Carrie Fisher died."
– Skeledenn
"There are only 12 Apollo astronauts left out of the 24 that flew. Of those 12 left, only 4 walked on the moon. If NASA’s Artemis program doesn’t start producing results soon, the experience of walking on another world will pass out of living memory."
– RogueRocketeer
He Had Passion For Animals
"Steve Irwin’s death broke me as a kid."
– dboz99
"I was in basic combat training, and the drill sergeants gathered us and said counselors were on standby and that we had experienced a national tragedy."
"We were expecting a 2nd 9/11 event. They told us Steve had died and everyone laughed. I was f'king devastated."
"Like so many, he taught me to appreciate the beauty of nature, and its inhabitants. Though a creature could be deadly if mistreated or not respected for its power, it was still worth understanding and appreciating."
"Steve, was an incredibly formative part of my upbringing."
– AldereztheGreat
The Venerated Food Critic
"Anthony Bourdain. He was weirdly like a member of our family, so many of our holiday traditions included watching and rewatching no reservations. All of our favorite meals were from his cookbooks. It was a gut punch for sure."
– Affectionate-Oven306
These young actors had their whole life ahead of them.
Posthumous Oscar Winner
"Heath Ledger. He was on his way to greatness."
– bdbr
He Was Entering The Prime Of His Career
"Anton Yelchin. He was so young and full of life. His career was really starting to pick up. I still feel upset about it."
– zephyr1004
The Beloved Roboticist
"Grant Imahara."
– JrsyDude
"This one crushed me because I had a brief interaction with him shortly before his death. I ran into him at San Diego Comic Con. He took a picture of me and my wife dressed as Rocket and Groot."
– dandroid126
Two Honorable Mentions
"Chadwick Boseman and Avicii, no one even knew that Chadwick was sick and Avicii was like 27 when he died."
– yeetgodmcnechass
I was not ready for the death of Luke Perry, the actor who played bad boy Dylan McKay in the original teen drama Beverly Hills, 90210.
Not only was he a loving father, but he also had the respect of most people in the industry. According to those who closely worked with him, Perry was a presence of encouragement.
I may even have had a crush on the guy. Sigh.
R.I.P., Luke.
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People Divulge The Worst Thing They've Heard Someone Say About The Deceased At Their Funeral
Image by yabadene belkacem from Pixabay |
I've often thought that I may one day fake my death, just to see who would show up at my funeral, and just to see what they would say.
We all know that the true tea is spilled after one has stopped breathing. So many of us play a good game of nice when we're all in corporeal form, but once that heart ceases to beat, honey those knives are coming out.
I have been to funerals that could rival episodes of 'Dynasty.' The things we say at a funeral can only possibly be topped by truths we tell at a wedding. And it's all a mess.
Redditoru/harumin24wanted to hear about the tea that is spilled when saying farewell to the dead by asking:
What's the worst thing you've heard someone say about the deceased at their funeral?
I remember the first funeral I went to where people didn't hold back. And I was shook. I mean I get it, you hated that person, by why bother sharing the craziness now? You should've just punched them in the face when you had a chance.
Lies!
i see you no GIF by Shalita GrantGiphy"Everyone stood up and spoke about how much they missed him and what a great man, friend, and leader he had been. His daughter stood up to speak last and said: "I don't know who you people are talking about because my father was nothing like that to me my whole life."
Why bother?
"There was no funeral for him. His sisters wanted one in the "it's the right thing to do" sort of way, but the rest of the family (his mother included) were in camp "why bother?"
"A lot was said, as this was the man who had abused my grandparents for drug money for years, stole from family members (including the birthday money of small children - I taught the younger cousins how to hide their holiday cash from him), faked cancer on multiple occasions to gain sympathy (and more money), and broke down my grandma's front door when she didn't want to deal with him while my grandpa was dying in their house."
"There were two that stand out:"
"Oh, he actually did die of cancer? About time."
"And the real ice cold one, from his mother:"
"It's for the best."
Good Riddance
"When my grandmothers brother-in-law passed away my grandmother asked me to be a pall bearer since they were having a hard time finding anyone that would agree to do it. During the funeral nobody other than family showed up and when the minister asked if anyone wanted to say anything about the deceased there were several people that shouted out things like 'good riddance.' He had been a man that was widely hated by the community as well as his family. He spent his entire life swindling anyone, including members of his own family, out of everything that he could."
John Doe
"I have an 1910 local newspaper obituary for my grandfathers brother (my great uncle), who died when my grandfather was 12. It reads.... "JOHN DOE died walking on Goose Gap Road with friends Saturday night when he fell on a knife. He was well-known as a wicked and godless boy, who brought shame to his family, but his parents are good, faithful church-going people and our sympathies are with them."
Oh My!
Fanning Heat Wave GIF by Harlem GlobetrottersGiphy"My very Christian grandmother who is in the beginning stages of dementia talked about how great my grandfather was in bed at his funeral. It was actually kind of sweet, but the timing wasn't great and I don't know how much her children wanted to hear about it right then."
Oh my... now that is a ton of mess. It makes you think, what are my so called "loved ones" thinking about me right now? I always have some shade to throw, but I like to see live reactions of the landings.
Not You
Oh God Reaction GIFGiphy"After Grandma's service we were discussing where to go for lunch when Gramps tells cousin (10) You stay here with the stiff, we'll pick you up later."
- sisnomor
What the hell Brian?!?
"My friend's father passed away a few years ago and a buddy of ours shows up out of the blue. We haven't seen this guy in a long time. We would send him texts, call him, send Facebook messages but he never responds. So anyway he shows up at the funeral and our friend says, "What the hell Brian?!? My father has to die for you to hang out!?!?"
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The Mistress
"My biological father's long-time mistress spent her time during the eulogy talking about:
- All the profound emotions she felt when they were making love, and how she knew from that he was the one (Her children, from a man she divorced to be with my father, were sitting right in front of her.)
- While on his deathbed, he woke up one of his last times and used his time to scold her "bitterly" for reading a magazine while he lay dying. She considered it a lighthearted and endearing moment.
- While recounting his legacy she got almost every single detail of his professional life wrong, and pointed me out as hopefully walking in my fathers steps (knowing I hated him)."
"The only other person to talk was the priest. My father was narcissistic, a psychopath, and a bad person in ways that aren't mentioned in pleasant conversation. All he cared about in life was power and glory at any and everyone else's expense, and he was buried at the funniest and most undignified funeral I have ever seen. It was almost therapeutic, 10/10."
"A great friend of mine died a couple years ago. He was known for his amazing sense of humor and the sound of his laugh. When his wife asked me to speak at his funeral, I started thinking about how--if he were alive and we were going to someone else's funeral, he'd figure out how to have fun."
"So I played a game and opened it up to his friends, challenging them to give me a word I had to work into the eulogy. In the end I came up with the word myself; as soon as I thought of it, I knew he would have used it. The word was "ejaculation." I won the challenge."
God Who?
jesus GIFGiphy"During his sermon at the funeral, the preacher said that he "thought it odd that the deceased insisted on having a church funeral, given that records and personal testimony indicated that he had never stepped foot in church during his lifetime."
Burn
"Complaining about the length of the service he said, "f**k me, 2 hrs to bury a set of teeth because that's all that was left after the fire. I was embarrassed but so did I. He was an ex SAS trooper so tended towards plain speaking. Ironically the deceased was not a friend of mine (he didn't know) so I'd been very careful not to say anything negative."
"Bill was a very flawed man..."
"At my Father's wake 20 years ago the man married to my Godmother gave a speech. He started with "Bill was a very flawed man..." and went on to badmouth my Dad for 5 minutes. This from the smarmy alcoholic a**hat that hit on me at a bar 2 years later and was universally regarded as a fool."
"We are ALL flawed, but my Dad was one of the greatest men and best Fathers I have ever met (aside from my husband). The funeral was standing room only and full of people whose lives were touched by my Dad's kindness and ability to make people laugh. I wanted to punch my Godmother's husband in his face that day."
Bad Timeline
Sorry Not Sorry School GIFGiphy"At my Grandma's funeral, I admitted to a cousin that I often forgot she was still alive. I had started referring to her in the past tense years before."
He was Ours!
"Well, being dead doesn't make him any less of an a**hole." It was said by me, about a good friend, and it was met with a lot of laughter because we all knew it was true. He was our a**hole if you know what I mean."
"I feel thats what my friends are going to say about me , and I'm proud to be their a**hole. After all , one of them said , you are friends with us because we are the only ones to put up with your bullcrap and dark humour :P"
- Vitaly17
Hey Michael
"Ooh, the boss gave a very Michael Scott-like eulogy. First, he asked for moment of silence, then talked through it. But the cringiest moment was saying how much the deceased cared for his ex-wife and daughter. "I see how much child support comes out of every one of his paychecks, and he never complained about that."
You do this for a living?
priest GIFGiphy"Went to a funeral where the catholic priest got the deceased name wrong, the dead guy's SIL's name wrong, and then told everyone refreshments were available at the back of the church, they weren't."
Heaven's Mess
"We can always hope our understanding of heaven is wrong", priest, speaking about a deceased friend who was an atheist but his parents insisted on a church funeral. He said it repeatedly and in different ways, implying that it was a shame he was going to burn in hell."
Gimme my Money!!
"He still owed me $14."
"I said that about my buddy that passed away. He owed me like $5 and I was joking to my friend that it's just like him to die on me so he didn't have to pay it back. Fast forward a couple days and I find random piles of change all adding to about $5. It's funny because that's exactly how he woulda paid me back."
It's Obvious!
"Not me, but my father went to the funeral of a man he knew while growing up. The preacher said he could tell by looking down on the deceased in the casket that he had went to hell. Then proceeded to preach a sermon about how it was necessary to live a morally upright life so that the people present didn't go to hell like the deceased man had."
Greedy
Halloween GIF by Pop-TartsGiphy"The officiant at my boyfriend's grandmother's funeral just a few months ago said that the deceased was good at getting free desserts from wait staff, which the family interpreted as him saying she was greedy and conniving."
Funerals really are a hotbed of drama and hilarity. That is when everyone has nothing craps left to give. And it shows us, all people are not good and need to go. Just truth!
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The Most Surprising Things They've Found In Someone's Belongings After They Passed Away
When somebody passes away there is always "the box". It's in the back of an attic, down in the bottom drawer, or bestowed to a son or daughter in the will.
However the dusty crate makes its way to the living, looking through the items is often an eerie experience. There always seems to be uncertainty about whether the person was proud or ashamed of these things.
In some deaths there is time and notice. The person can get their affairs in order, choreograph who gets what, hide away the embarrassing things and divvy out the proudest trinkets.
Some deaths, though, come suddenly. There is no time to make calculations about the objects with that kind of passing.
For the living, the results of uncovered items can be a concoction of surprise, disgust, and sudden understanding.
One Quora user asked,
"While sorting through a deceased person's possessions, what is the most disturbing thing you found?"
Identifying Objects
"A morbid collection of about 20 teeth, clutches of different colored hair in little plastic bags, a bunch of what looked like fingernail clippings in plastic baggies, and a four-inch dried and twisted up stalk of something with a bow-clip attached in the middle."
"Upon closer inspection, you could see these very tiny markings or labels on almost every item."
"The teeth; they were [her son's] baby teeth and his brother Ron's baby teeth (Ron passed away a year before Thelma) and apparently the tooth fairy had helped [her] collect each one."
"The bags of hair were all labeled differently; 'My sister Jane funeral 1947,' 'Ron 1st haircut 1950,' 'Rich 1st haircut 1953,' 'Mom funeral 1962,' 'Aunt Mabel funeral 1964,' 'sister Dorothy Jane funeral 1965,' etc."
-- Becci Winkler
A Pristine Artifact of an Ugly Age
"Folded neatly inside, on top of a shelf, was the uniform of what we later found out was a Major in the SS. The tunic, cover, slacks, medals and insignia looked like they had been kept clean and maintained. It looked like it had been freshly dry-cleaned and was ready to wear."
"Under the shelf were several drawers, and in each one were his Ausweis, SS identity cards, daggers, commissions, promotion to the SS Medical Corps, and letters from superior officers; one was even signed by whom we later learned was Heinrich Himmler."
"There were also a significant quantity of Gold Krugerrands which he had obviously put aside for an emergency."
"The man who would have been my father-in-law was an SS Doctor who, I now believe, had worked under Mengele at one of the camps."
-- Patrick Parrish
It All Makes Sense
"My uncle Don was an odd guy. It wasn't until my teen years that I really understood that."
"When I was younger, he was friendly to me, so that was enough. He was a loner, particular, moody, intense, especially after he divorced and separated from his wife. No kids."
"When my parents went to clean out his home, among the heaps and mounds of a rotten life were dozens and dozens of high heeled shoes, both well- and never-worn, women's clothing, size XL, and a sturdy noose."
"It was a revelation that brought clarity to a lot of things: the solitude, the neighborhood, the sadness. I recall my parents both deeply rattled from the experience. Like someone might feel after watching a dog being hit by a car, traumatized, yet removed and either unable or unwilling to describe it in greater detail."
"Something that had occurred to me at various points in my adult understanding of people, was that Don had been in the seminary at the height of its pedophilia reign, when it ran wild and unchecked."
"Sure enough, Don was a student at St. Edward's Seminary. I found Father William Queenan's name in a database of abusive clergy with multiple accusers. The more I searched, the more certain and sad I became that this was the culminating experience that robbed Don of his ability for successful self determination."
-- Pam Patterson
"A very extended and detailed critique of my every word and movement. Even printed emails to a family friend who had been a confidant (but was close to my part of the family as well) that painted me as a terrible person."
"I began to question myself and wonder at who I really was. But some of the words she put in my mouth were bold faced lies and there were things she said I did that I knew I had not. In fact, some of the things she attributed to me had been things she had said or done."
-- Anonymous
Would Rather Not Have Known
"After mom broke the news to me that my dad passed away I went into his bedroom, remember it's the old days and quite often couples would have separate rooms and just meet for the conjugal part.
"I opened up my dad's large walk-in closet and went in observing all the different items in there and reminiscing and smelling."
"I saw this long white robe with this very distinct red white and black cross pattern and a goofy looking kind of hood hat I couldn't quite figure out what it was but it stuck with me and embedded so deeply that when I did see an actual KKK outfit I knew immediately what that was."
-- Fancee P Pearse
Evidence of Crisis
"My mom was an immaculate typist. She died in her 40's while much of her family was young (including me). Long after her death I was rooting through our basement for a prize; I heard that her journal was there."
"Here were hundreds of pages of journal, single spaced, typed and there was perhaps one error every 3 pages."
"It is filled with XXXXXX's, crossouts, notes in the margin. There are other errors that weren't caught. It was from a very dark part of the history of my parents' lives."
"A dark part that happened prior to my birth. My mom at that time, was struggling with her mental health. She knew it too. Had even asked to be committed, but we were far away from family and there were too many needs from her young kids and so she suffered."
-- Aaron Lassig
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Wildly Organized Trash
"Boxes and boxes of used dead batteries, blown fuses, burned out light bulbs, broken household items, broken furniture, broken transistor radios, flashlights, Etc. All of these items were labeled with the date they stopped working. Why did my Mom and Dad keep garbage like that? I'm still confused."
-- Lisa Anne McBride
Couldn't Not Have This Story in the List
"Grandmother dies and Bonnie (ex-wife) goes to Winnipeg to help her mother sort through Grandmother's stuff and do what is needed."
"She gives me three pairs of knee-high socks which are still in their packets."
"I looked at the 3 packs of socks and decided to just open one of them for now and see how they felt. I opened the plastic covers and then felt the hard cardboard inner liners to help keep them stiff."
"I pulled out the inner liners BUT wait there is more; what is this? Wow, hundreds of dollars in Canadian bills."
"I fall back sitting on the bed and go WTF! My heart is beating strong as money will help a lot. I quickly count, then recount - nice there is $15,000."
"I was glad to give her the money to give back to the family... I cried a bit inside but was glad I did the right thing."
-- Bill Taylor
Hidden Talents
"A simple file hidden within my dad's personal files—past tax info, some stuff he was gathering from a genealogy site, and one other thing."
"A manuscript."
"So I began. I read, and I read. Then I read some more. I spent about 5 hours in our basement, lights off, in front of that glowing white screen that made my eyes ache. I read my dad's book."
"And it was flippin' amazing."
-- Rob Schark
Back Before the Trauma Set In
"Among them, a photo album. In the album, their were extremely disturbing and graphic pictures from the war. I'm not kidding—shocking images, heads blown open, bodies charred with napalm. People posing next to scenes of utter devastation and death."
-- John Kestell
When their True Character Comes Out
"What was the most disturbing to me was that my sister had removed much of my mom's belongings - almost as if I'd come and haul it all off."
"All her Waterford crystal collection and Belleek, and china sets, silverware were gone, so were the photos and jewelry, and a lot of other things, things that weren't nailed down. I'm sure my sister cleared out the place before I came."
-- Kathleen Grace
"Dark Family Secret"
"On the last day before closing, I emptied out her night table and found a yellowed envelope from a doctor dated sometime in the 1940s. Inside was a brief handwritten letter about my dad, confirming that he had epilepsy and was not qualified for driving or the draft."
"When my dad was asked about his exemption from the service, he always said it was because of flat feet."
"I mentioned the letter to my brother and he told me that one day, when he was a little boy, he saw our father rigid and unresponsive in his easy chair. He thought our dad was dead."
"My father's condition was a dark family secret."
-- Barrie Levine
A Record of Abuse
"My Mum died very suddenly at the age of 53. She'd had a massive brain haemorrhage caused by a berry aneurysm that just suddenly burst."
"I was given her possessions in a bag at the hospital. There was just her clothes and handbag and her mobile phone."
"The phone had got about 10 missed calls and voice messages. I listened to the messages. They were all from my Dad. Whilst she was dying my Dad had left several messages."
- "Ring me when you're on your way home."
- "Where are you, you should be home by now."
- "Would you mind calling me back and telling me where the f*ck you are?"
- "Where the f*ck are you, you f*cking bitch, answer your f*cking phone."
- "Get f*cking home right f*cking now.
- I've organised this holiday, and if you're f*cking late…you f*cking know what will happen when you get home."
"He obviously didn't know that I'd listened to these messages, and told everyone that their last conversation was, 'I love you, I'll see you soon.' "
-- Lucy Reid
Walls of Privacy Stripped Away
"Imagine a tornado hit your house. Inside. Add years worth of receipts and plastic bags, clothes, records, furniture, and stuff that belonged in the garbage, was strewn everywhere by this tornado. I had to look to find the bed. It was indistinguishable from the rest of the mess."
"Under the bed were tied-off, white plastic deli bags of cigarette butts. He'd empty the ashtrays but couldn't throw the bags of butts out."
"What was found that was even more of a surprise than the disastrous mess? Bank statements."
"He had millions in his account."
"He chose to live like that. Although choice may be the wrong word. I think it entirely possible he stayed there because if he moved, someone had to see the place. He probably couldn't bear the idea of anyone knowing how he lived."
-- Elizabeth Grey
Not Sure How Much it Helps the Case
"Several years ago as a police officer I was sent to deal with a report of the sudden death of a man in his thirties who was found deceased in the caravan he was living in."
"I was sorting through his personal possessions to try and find details of his next of kin when I came across a box full of Polaroid photographs."
"Also inside the box was a fairly interesting collection of rubber sex toys and vibrators, nipple clamps and cock rings."
But those Polaroid's were something else!
"Clearly the guy was well into the swinging/ bondage scene."
"There were photos of him in women's underwear, group sex, BDSM and a few other fairly strange and kinky group sex activities. I'm fairly broad minded and I've seen a lot of things before but some of this stuff was quite shocking."
-- Steve O'Boyle
A Sudden, Morbid Explanation
"Was cleaning out the large freezer and found the body of my aunt's favorite cat, Teddy. Now we know why she wouldn't let us get anything out of that freezer when we visited."
"She didn't want us to know she'd saved his body after he died and stored it there. He'd died several years before, and his uncleaned litter box was still in the bedroom she had kept shut since then."
"She slept on the sofa from then-on, only walked into her bedroom to grab something from time to time, and wouldn't let us go in there."
-- Arran Walker
Huge Fans
"A membership card for the Roy Orbison fan club in my stepfather's name, and a box of Roy Orbison records and memorabilia. I think if you had given me a thousand guesses, I never would have imagined him as a Roy Orbison fan."
"A photo of my grandmother and my grandfather as a young couple posing in front of Huey Long's grave in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. This must have been a long and expensive trip for a young couple during the Depression; I had no idea that they had such a devotion to Huey Long."
-- Mark Thomase
Ya Certainly Hope So...
"Well, no one really expects to find pills of crystal meth in their Opa's belongings. Obviously at some point he had gotten it from a soldier or some other military complex, because there's no other logical explanation."
-- Melody Bertrile
Do you have something to confess to George? Text "Secrets" or "" to +1 (310) 299-9390 to talk him about it.
Woman Stunned After Finding Her Deceased Grandfather On Google Maps Years After His Death
Google Maps is a convenient tool to look up and find routes to various locations.
Unbeknownst to the unsuspecting user, it can also be a time capsule.
One woman browsed the web mapping service and was led to a destination she never saw coming: A trip back in time.
A Twitter user named Yajaira said she never got to say goodbye to her grandfather when he passed away a few years ago.
But thanks to the magic of Google's street view photography, she was able to see an image of him when he was still very much alive.
She shared a clip of her virtual navigation through a Google street view of a farm in Mexico that belonged to her grandfather.
There was grandpa, in plain view, sitting on a chair outside his farm.
Her poignant video post went viral – currently at 447K likes – after tugging on the heartstrings of thousands of social media users.
It also prompted others who made similar discoveries of their late loved ones immortalized on Google Maps.
@yajairalyb Omg same thing with my nana!! It’s gonna be 3 years since she passed 💗 https://t.co/3Igo77fczM— IRI (@IRI) 1578510635
@Buenrostrohhh @yajairalyb my grandma passed away in 2014❤️ found this and it made my day. she was my rock🌹 https://t.co/qrj3R1CXqk— jen (@jen) 1578538438
@yajairalyb same as my buddy lucky, rip :( https://t.co/GtDWqcaL4d— liz (@liz) 1578518072
Here is the image from Dre Day's above tweet.
@mermaidbissshh/Twitter
@mermaidsbisshh @yajairalyb @grizzziii_ Something about the fact that he’s waving has me sobbing— void lars (@void lars) 1578531467
@yajairalyb Same with my Grandpa, it’s gonna be 3 years since his passing. This is him walking towards his daughter… https://t.co/9QtKnJtlRF— Brayan Cuin - Tinoco (@Brayan Cuin - Tinoco) 1578514115
And here is the screenshot from Brayan Cuin's tweet of his grandpa when he was still alive.
@brayan_cuin_/Twitter
The viral post inspired others to search for and be reunited with their late family members.
@yajairalyb Because if this thread I found my dad... it’s been almost 4 years. 😭😭😭 I never knew. Thank you https://t.co/KaxTMaqXg2— Paula (@Paula) 1578534595
This is the screenshot from Paula's tweet of her late father.
@yajairalyb Same with my grandma 😢almost 5 years since she passed https://t.co/XnxXeFcot2— Vλ₦E$$λ🇲🇽 (@Vλ₦E$$λ🇲🇽) 1578517264
This is Vanessa's screenshot.
@v_salazar24/Twitter
Here is Jordan's screenshot of her late grandma.
@sojordann_/Twitter
Even those who tragically passed were found in this street-view image.
@yajairalyb My dad who died in March from Brain Cancer and my Nephew who took his life in November at the age of 14. https://t.co/27pO8g4DlW— James Burke (@James Burke) 1578890408
@yajairalyb I did the same thing a few months ago, my mother hasn’t seen our grandpa since I was 3 years old, he re… https://t.co/FYfMoXPOlb— Quintana (@Quintana) 1578520959
The Google Maps Twitter account gave an emotional response after being overwhelmed by the sentimental thread.
@yajairalyb Our tissue box is officially empty. Thank you for sharing this. 💙— Google Maps (@Google Maps) 1578598164
Pets were no exception from being featured through the internet time capsule.
@yajairalyb same as my buddy lucky, rip :( https://t.co/GtDWqcaL4d— liz (@liz) 1578518072
@HangryAF/Twitter
@Thomas_Wayman/Twitter
Yajaira told TIME about her surprise reunion and the resulting viral status of her post.
"I felt chills and I couldn't help but to cry."
"I shared it with my family once I realized the tweet was getting so much attention. I wanted to wait, but I decided to send it them before they saw it somewhere else."
Google Maps' street view photography is captured courtesy of a fleet of drivers whisking through cities around the world in vehicles mounted with cameras.
Each car is equipped with 15 cameras enabling 360-degree view shots at a height of 8.2 feet.
There is something poetic about a grandfather watching a passing vehicle having a role in posthumously connecting him to the future.
"He was so old and I am sure he was confused with the car and what was on top it of. He was probably wondering what was going on."
According to Techwalla, the satellite data information on Google Maps is between 1 to 3 years old and it is hard to predict when the maps and images will be updated.
However, even after they disappear, Google does archive old images and they can be accessed through the Google Maps Website.
If you are one of the lucky few who stumbles upon an image of a loved one on who has passed, take a screenshot of your beautiful reunion.
The book Never Lost Again: The Google Mapping Revolution That Sparked New Industries and Augmented Our Reality is available here.