Interlacing Branches

Shit happens. No really, it does. And sometimes, it happens before you are even born.

 We couldn't hit the damn bulls eye, because everyone was dancing around a long held secret like an amateur boxer in the ring with Muhammad Ali. Think about this as you read. I was being blocked from my goal because someone was guarding a secret that was over 80 years old! My tree was not making sense to me because there was this strange entanglement that had to be figured out. I was going in circles. With the help of my friend Lorena, I had several hunches. But, before I could nail down a hunch, someone told the truth.
 LeRoy's wife commandeered the phone one day to let me know that there had been incest in the family. I wrote that last sentence like a hostile take over, but really she was quite tactful in her delivery. She relieved my confusion. A half bother and a half sister had a child together. Some of the family seemed to still carry that shame. It broke my heart that there still seemed to be guilt and shame lingering around. The half siblings went on to have other children by other people outside of the Blair family bloodline. My response was this: "Thank you for telling me, because this family tree was giving me a fit! And, we didn't have anything to do with that. It happened. We're here. Let's move forward. We have no need of carrying guilt or shame." I never fully estimated all that I would dig up when I embarked on this journey. And, I realize that keeping that incident hidden was not done in an effort to thwart my search. It just made it difficult for a time. They are my ancestors and that fact remains. Every one of their descendants can be free if they so choose...