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Valerie Spruill (pictured) decided to reveal her bizarre story to a small Ohio paper, the Akron Beacon, about a family secret that is so unimaginable that it can make anyone’s skin crawl.  What did it take years for her to reveal?  Six years after her husband passed away in 1998, Spruill found out that he was in fact her biological father.

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Spruill came from a small town of about 3,000 residents called “Doylestown” in Wayne County, Ohio.  Spruill’s dad, Percy, married her mother when they were only 15 years old.  She does not know how many children the couple had together and is only aware of six brothers.

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At only 3 months old, Spruill was given to her grandmother to raise. As a young child, she began to see pieces of life that just didn’t seem to fit together.  At 9 years old, Spruill was told that the man she had come to know as her father was in fact her grandfather, which was a blow. Spruill was also informed that a woman named Christina, who occasionally came to visit the family, was in fact her biological mother.

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Family secrets seemed to reign supreme in Spruill’s household as she later uncovered a shameful discovery about her mother.  It seems that Christina had been a well-known “night lady” or prostitute who was one of three women who testified in the infamous 1980 corruption trial of Summit County Probate Judge James Barbuto.

How Spruill came to find out about her beloved husband Percy’s actual blood ties to her was when an uncle spilled the beans.

Even though Spruill didn’t believe her uncle’s claim at first, she decided that she had to know for sure. The Mother of three and grandmother of eight decided to go the DNA route, which could only produce concrete evidence on whether her husband was in fact also her father.

Five years ago, Spruill accidentally stumbled upon one of her husband’s old hair brushes, which she found stuck under a dresser.  She submitted Percy’s hairs from the brush to a DNA-testing facility.

The report from the lab stated that Percy was in fact Spruill’s father.

Percy, who passed away at age 60, had worked as a truck driver in Akron, Ohio, and then as a parking attendant at a health center. Spruill says that her father might have had more than an inkling that she was his daughter but might have been just too scared to inform her.

After suffering a slew of serious health issues, which she thinks were brought on by the stress of her mortifying discovery, Spruill has been under the care of a therapist, whom she credits for helping her to not take blame for her circumstances.

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“I’ve been getting great help,” she says, “because, God knows, if I hadn’t of went and aired out how I feel, I wouldn’t have made it, because I would have continued to stress out about this problem,” Spruill tells the Akron Beacon.

Does she harbor any hatred toward Percy?

Spruill says that she literally fights to keep from hating her husband and father, “because people who hate don’t get into heaven,”  she says. “And if you don’t make it in to heaven when the time comes, you can’t hit the rewind button and try again.”

Spruill made the decision to share her incredible story because it ”needs to be told, children need to know where they come from,” she said. “And I know it hurts, because I have been devastated by this. I know there’s a reason why I’m still living,” she says. “And it’s to tell this story.

Sound off!

Say What? Ohio Woman Finds Out She Was Married To Father!  was originally published on newsone.com