My resolution for 2018 is to trace the family who don’t yet know I exist |
My resolution for 2018 is to trace the family who don’t yet know I exist
The Guardian
2017-12-30
Two years ago I discovered I was not related to my white father. Now, I intend to find out the origins of my blackness
When it comes to setting new year’s resolutions, I am not that bothered about losing weight, exercising more, or becoming more productive (although it would be good to finally get a grip on all those things). Instead, I have decided to make 2018 the year in which I make a serious, wholehearted attempt to trace a family who don’t yet know I exist, and to find out once and for all, in as much detail as I can, the origins of my blackness.
No one realises the difficult nature of this task more than me. As I have previously written, I was raised by two white parents who always assured me that I was related to them both, which led me to identify as white until I was about 15.
The nadir of my life came almost two years ago, when my dad died and a subsequent DNA test confirmed my deepest fears, which had wrapped themselves around my life like the tendrils of a poisonous plant. I was not related to my fantastic father; my mother had been unfaithful with a man she knows little about. It had never been spoken about…
Read the entire article here.
Tags: Georgina Lawton, The Guardian