A woman was shocked to learn that she has 35 siblings after her mum revealed a shocking family secret on her deathbed.
Josephine Latimer found out that the man who raised her, Scott, wasn’t her biological father after her mum, Annie, had a stroke six years ago.
It sparked a deep curiosity and the 69-year-old set out to find her genetic parent using a DNA testing site.
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The results ultimately revealed that her dad was called John, but that he had died at the age of 84 – 30 years earlier.
It also showed that she had 35 siblings on her dad’s side.
“It’s surreal to talk about,” Josie, an actress, told What’s The Jam.
“I have a whopping 42 altogether.
“The DNA results led me to my nephews, which then led me to my cousin, who then revealed my actual father after my oldest sister on my mum’s side remembered who he was.
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“She didn’t tell me until I found out, though.
“And [apparently] she used to play with my siblings growing up; until I was born.”
The cosmetics business owner, who splits her time between Houston and California, US, had heard whispers throughout her childhood that the man who raised her wasn’t her biological father.
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Her mum had flippantly told her when she was five that her real dad was “older and much better looking”.
But being so young, Josephine hadn’t thought anything of it.
She said: “When I was five, I could hear my parents arguing.
“Dad stormed off in a huff and mum said my real father was an older, tall, good-looking man.
“Because I was only five, I didn’t understand what she meant.
“I didn’t think any more of it.
“I always felt closer to my mum, but dad was a good parent.
“He always said I was different, but I did think we had a special bond.
“When I was nine, he said he knew I wasn’t his child, but I was as long as he was raising me.
“It went in one ear and out the other.”
The man who Josephine knew as her dad died when she was 42.
Eight years later, her mum had a stroke.
She said: “We knew she didn’t have long left.
“When I went to visit her, she took my hand and said my real dad was tall and older.
“Suddenly, I had a flashback of her saying the same thing when I was five.
“She said she used to take me to see him when I was a baby.
“I couldn’t believe he knew about me.
“To think the man who’d raised me wasn’t my biological dad was overwhelming.
“I had to start thinking of him as my stepdad.”
Josephine was the second youngest of her seven siblings on her mum’s side.
Annie explained that Josephine had been conceived while she and Scott were on a break.
After discovering her siblings’ names on the DNA site, Josie reached out to them to arrange a zoom call.
She discovered that they had grown up in the same neighbourhood and says they welcomed her with open arms.
She has even received an invite to the family’s annual reunion for the last three years.
And Jodie was taken by her two sisters [not named for privacy reasons] to her dad’s grave, accompanied by her eldest sister, Ethel, 99.
Josephine said: “I was invited to their yearly family reunion.
“They’d been doing them for over 50 years, so I was nervous to be the newcomer.
“What if the rest of Dad’s family didn’t accept me?
“But when I got there, they overwhelmed me with love.
“It was like I was the star of the show and I felt so lucky.
“Soon, I went to visit Ethel at her home.
“When I walked in, her eyes lit up.
“We held hands as we talked for hours getting to know each other.
“She told me about our dad’s humble beginnings and how he was once the eligible bachelor of the town.
“We came to the conclusion he must’ve stayed out of my life out of respect for my mum and stepdad.
“Or it could’ve been because he didn’t want to disrupt my life.
“Either way, I wish he’d made himself known to me.
“When we got to dad’s grave, I knelt down and put my hands on his headstone.
“It was a sad moment, but I also felt happy to be closer to him.
“My sisters and I spent the rest of the day together and we clicked.
“It feels like I’ve known them my whole life.
“I feel lucky to have such a big, loving family.”
