What's the weirdst thing you found when someone died?

[ferriswheel]

I was thinking of writing a diary. Something to help me figure out why i sabotage my weight loss success and why i tolerated the bad behaviour of my husband for so long.

I dont at all expect anything untoward happening to me but the idea of my inner most thoughts being read by whoever...

Anyway, have you ever found anything that you shouldnt have, but had to deal with because of the circumstances?

On the back of an one of Mums old recipes, a rough copy for a letter,, (or desperate letter to herself) about some kind of wrong that had been done to her. written "crossed" like when paper was precious
Its a mystery, its almost impossible to decipher.
she sounded very shaken.

Mix56 I can only make out a few words but it seems very interesting. Surely someone could be able to figure it out. I feel so nosey but I’m intrigued now.

DH's uncle died a few years and we found three Victorian chimney pots in the cellar.

Mix

I hope you don't mind, but I have tried to transcribe the words?:-

What a load of Codswallop
Maybe I confused him with the denial?
Desperate
I am right
Don't you ever ever do that again
I am starting to hope I? people? trying to inact?
I'll possibly be seeing you at work
To? give you control
Yet/Yes? something begin? something something
Something? you young? things?
The something something something.

Everybodys talking about your baby.

After my dad died,in a very random conversation with mum i found out I'm actually adopted. That was awkward.

@SteamTrainsRealAleandOpenFires
That’s very odd letter
Do you know when it was written
I thought it might be devil and not denial
And I am dying to contact

Same The letter belongs to Mix56

The real thing is slightly more legible, I think it's devil too.
She was a nurse/midwife, I am assuming it was at the beginning of her marriage/courting, she married my Dad who was a doctor the recipe was in an old diary 1932 (I think, I'll have to go & look for the original)
I read it as she had been wronged in some way...

Among my grandmother's possessions we found a stuffed duck-billed platypus and a shrunken head.

I haven't been through everything yet but I've found some odd things so far such as my grandmother's hearing aid, great-grandfather's spurs and some shrapnel from WW2 and a document from the 1680s. Hopefully nothing weirder to come...

Oh sorry @Mix56
Interesting. Could be wronged by someone at work or wronged by another man before your df.
I cleared out my dads when he was in hospital and found a lot of dirty books. He moved back in, and has never mentioned that I clearly threw a whole lot away!

My Dad's siblings cleared the house when the last GP died. I actually wrote in an email to someone, as I lived there, there must have been old love letters and photos but never got given anything that was mine. Down to really silly stuff like stuffed toys I had.

One thing we all wanted was a copy of a recipe that was amazing that one of the siblings spouses just threw away.

I've been in a world of what to do as I was bought up with my Mum and Dad being my Mum and Dad, in my thirties I found out my Dad isn't my Dad. He's the only real family my DC have left, so I don't want to cause any more mental anguish than is necessary.

I write a diary, or a journal, whatever they're called nowadays. I also have a lot of books that ask probing questions.

For parents still here you can but 'Dear Mum/Dad/Grandmother/Grandfather' books where they write down interesting things. I think at about £5 they're really cool. I used to love my GP telling stories. I bought my Dad one, not sure if he'll fill it in as he's a bit grumpy.

Excellent birthday/Mother's Day/Fathers Day present.

I found out family secrets through doing the family tree. Ex didn't know why a certain person was never spoke of I found out why accidentally. There was quite a lot that you wouldn't suspect.

One thing I remember was on clearing GP's house, they found some vibrators in a shoe box. I just couldn't even imagine my GP doing that kind of stuff.

When clearing my mum's house, we found an old picture of her in her early twenties (?) with a young man. They looked really happy together. He definitely wasn't my dad who'd died about 20 years before mum. Luckily mum's sister was still alive so we showed her the photo and it turns out it was my mum's fiancé who she'd been engaged to during the war. I can't believe she kept his photo for over 60 years and would love to have found out more about him and why they split up. Was he killed in the war? Aunty couldn't remember or chose not to say, so I'll never know.

My DM found my grandad's black tin box when looking for the financial paperwork. There was a big legal dispute between dm and siblings and GD second wife so it was really horrible time for my DM.

Anyway in the black box was photographs, some of my nan his first wife and some of the family friend Sybil. All naked.

My GD was a very naughty man.
Irony was Sybil was at the funeral... turns out he'd been bonking her all along.

I went through my DGM's old letters and papers after her death, and found a letter written to her in the 1930s from a brother (who I had never heard about!) from the Soviet Union, basically berating his sister for being religious and a pawn of the establishment. It's the only sign I've ever seen of said brother, but DF has confirmed he existed, and moved to the Soviet Union after the revolution - big time communist, apparently. He wasn't ever really talked about in the family.

The letter had splodges on it, like old tear drops. :(

Also in the same DGM's papers was a little diary she had kept shortly after giving birth to DF, written as addressed to her new baby. One thing that stood out to me was her writing "you are the most perfect little boy ever, but oh how I wish your father wasn't your father!" :(

@Peacesofeight
No, with the tax office /DWP she was the right age. It was just with her family, her wedding cert and the passport office that she fibbed to!

She wouldn’t have done herself out of her pension!!

One thing that really amazed me about say GP's that die, most are very modest about how they looked when they were younger, they're so stunning it's almost unreal.

When DHs paternal grandma (Edith) died DHs mum and aunt (the grandma's daughter in laws) found her many diaries. They detailed Edith's life from a child aged 3 which was as far back as she could remember talking about her parents and siblings and what her life was like growing up right up until recent (1920s-2000s). The daughters in law thought they were too sad for anyone else to read and burnt them all!! Neither Edith's 7 sons or daughter or any of the grandchildren (who I believe had the most rights to the diaries as it was their family history) were told about the diaries until after they were destroyed.

A Dear Daddy I Miss You letter, written by my Mum to her Dad during the War (WW2). Mum believed that her Dad had died and was Irish - as Grandma had told her that.

As my Mum was dying 3 years ago I thought I would look into it. Turns out her Dad wasn't Irish and hadn't died but had abandoned her and my Grandma and immigrated to Canada. Grandma hadn't told her he was Irish because all the records had been destroyed in a big fire. He actually came from Beds.

I didn't tell my Mum - but finding the Dear Daddy letter after she died was a bit heartbreaking.

@WheresTheHooferDoofer - that's something to think about. Thank you.

@Pinky14 - what lovely kind words. I'm sorry you've suffered. The world can have some difficult people and events in it at times.

pinkstripeycat I'd be livid if that had been in my family. The DILs had no right to burn the diaries.

I had to clear my aunt's flat after she died. She and DF had always had a fraught relationship as they were brought up by different sides of the family after Granddad died from WW1 injuries when Dad was two. She was always very much the big sister and little brother knew nothing, even in their 80s.

In her bedside drawer I found an old studio portrait of the two of them, probably taken just before those events. Big sister happy in her pretty dress and enormous hair bow, holding the hand of scowling toddler brother, grumpy because he was all dressed up. It must have come from another family member as on the back it had 'to Auntie X and Uncle Y from [aunt's name] and [DF's childhood nickname]'.

I also found an old Christmas card to my GGM, from '[Granddad], [Gran's nickname] and the bairns'. Dad was very tearful as he'd never seen his father's writing before and the thought of his sister having that childhood picture of the two of them by her bed all those years...

I also found a letter sent from the parish minister, serving at the Western Front in WW1 as a chaplain, to my GGM, on hearing of the death of her youngest son, a teenager, from illness.

My mum decided when she was pregnant with me, early 60s, not to marry my dad. She never spoke of him, only to tell me he drank his tea black, as I do.
When she died I found her 5yr diary, with all the relevent pages torn out. The thing was, as a teenager I had broken in to it to see if it said anything about my dad, it didn't.
I did find at 5he back of my baby book a picture of a man, my mum know she was on her way and left me the photo.

Having a clear out I discovered a box of letters to my son from a prominent business mans daughter. In it she was offering herself to him on a plate but as he was going with someone else at the time it was ok but would be there if he needed her. It was the last sentence that got me. She said “anyway never mind, I’ll see you tomorrow in Biology” he is now 40 so they were still at school.

My DF insisted he is gay (my DM being a blip) however when clearing up his stuff when he was between moving from various flats to care homes I found lots of very heterosexual porn, also a biscuit tin filled with vibrators or dildos (none of them handmade). He's still alive, so I wish there was such a thing as brain bleach.