I don't really know that much about my family. I'm not a family person and most of them live in England or Christchurch and I'm not that close to them.
I've always thought my family's pretty boring but I just learned a family drama.
Turns out I have another cousin I didn't know about. I knew who she was and I've spoken to her on the phone once before, but I didn't know we were actually related. My mum told me an I just assumed she was a second cousin or something like the somehow-related-to-me-maybe-cousins in england. But nope. She's my full-blown cousin.
My Uncle John got this girl pregnant and then left her. But my Nana, like the icon she is, contacted this girl and ended up helping to raise their kid. The girl, Angela, got a new boyfriend and he didn't like the arrangement that his step daughter was being raised by her shitty biological father's parents. So there was a big falling out and my Nana and Grandad lost contact with them.
My Nana spoke about this kid, Brooke, a lot while I was growing up. I assumed she was either a semi-distant relative or a daughter/grandaughter of a friend. She always sent Brooke birthday and Christmas cards and they called very occasionally but pretty much lost all contact eventually. Well, Brooke's back in nz! I'll be meeting her on Tuesday for dinner at my Nana's house and she'll be staying for a couple of months. By terrible coincidence, my uncle and his two children who don't know they have a half sister are also coming to nz from Australia for a few weeks.
Anyway, Brooke's 22 now and studying mental health. Which is really good because I'm terrified to meet her (but excited too!) and I plan on studying psychology, probably clinical so we'll have something to talk about! Last time I spoke to her she was my age now (16) and I was 10, so. Big things!
So either way I'm just surprised the family scandal was so close to me and I'm so happy my Nana can meet with Brooke again.
