Family Secrets

It was one summer morning; beautiful and lovely. Everyone was happy sitting at the breakfast table. Sharon was however not happy, and she suddenly burst out, “Mum am pregnant!”  Everyone was startled. You see, Sharon was one of the best behaved girls and she did not even have a boyfriend. At least that is what they all thought. The news of her being pregnant was not received well by her parents.

Her mother was horrified and decided that they should get rid of it. As usual, Sharon did not want to go against her mother and so, she went ahead and terminated the pregnancy. She continued with her studies and that incident was kept as a deep family secret. She later forgot about it and even got married to a successful businessman. Everything was going on well for her. She had a beautiful family, business was doing great and her two children, Janice and James were adorable.

Years later, at the breakfast table one summer morning, Janice announced to the awe of everyone, “Am pregnant!”

“What did you just say?” her mother asked. She was so confused. She could not imagine her lovely seventeen year old daughter was pregnant.  How could she be? Without giving it much thought, she quickly told her that they would get rid of it. That did not go well with Janice. As much as she was expectant out of wedlock which was unaccepted in their society, she was going to keep her pregnancy. Sharon’s husband, David, was shocked when her wife suggested terminating the pregnancy. They got into a fight about it and the long well kept secret left the bag when Janice shouted, “Why do you want to ruin her future with this? She can still get other children when she is ready and besides, that is what I did when I discovered I was pregnant while I was in college!”

David could not believe what he had just heard. He was so mortified, he divorced his wife. Sharon was left all alone. All she had worked for was gone just because of a family secret that was kept for twenty five years. The children opted to go with their dad since they saw their mother as a heartless woman who is capable of taking the life of the innocent. That one secret shuttered her life. Her efforts to get her family back were fruitless. She called her mother and cried as she told her how life had suddenly changed for her. Her mother blamed her for letting the cat out of the bag. “If you had kept your big mouth shut, you could have still been with your family. You just had to let everyone know you were pregnant and aborted it. You are a big let down to everyone!”

Sharon hung up the call. Her mind was filled with depressing thoughts. She picked up a magazine and the front page read, “I thought about how there are two types of secrets: the kind you want to keep in, and the kind you don't dare to let out.” ~ Ally Carter, Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover. She did not like the sound of that and picked up another magazine. After flipping through several pages, she came across the quote “There are no secrets that time does not reveal.” ~ Jean Racine. How true those words were. Now her regret was not letting the secret out but rather having an abortion in the first place. No matter what she did, she could never undo that. It is a fact of life that she would have to leave with for the rest of her life.

There are times when we do things we are ashamed of. Those things we often time keep as secrets. As long as the sun shines, every secret shall be revealed no matter how long it takes. When such secrets are let out, the results may be devastating. It is wise never to keep secrets that can hurt you in future.