有什么家庭秘密是你孩童时不知道的，但是你成人后知道了并且因此明白了很多事。

What is a family secret you didn't know as a kid, but now as an adult you do and when you look back it explains a lot of things?

Silke Force

This is a rather sweet picture of my parents and me. My dad was 21. My mum was 26.
这是一张多么甜蜜的我和父母的全家福。那时我爸爸21岁，我妈妈26。

I was in my 40s when I found out that this was one of their two only wedding pictures.
当我40多岁时，我才发现这是他俩仅有的两张结婚照之一。

I didn’t know that I had been born before they were married.
从前我并不知道，我是在他们结婚之前出生的。

THIS explained 19 years of abuse. For my mother , I was the scapegoat. Whatever went wrong, I was to blame.
这解释了19年来我的不受待见。我在我妈妈心里成为了替罪羊。无论出了什么问题，我都会被责怪。

I also hadn’t realized that my paternal grandparents wouldn’t let their son marry my mother because she was of the academic class and he was of the mercantile class. They convinced him that her baby probably wasn’t his.
我也终于理解了我的祖父母，他们为什么不让我的爸爸和妈妈结婚，因为妈妈是学生出生，但是我的爸爸是商人出生。他们说服我爸爸：我妈妈怀的很可能不是我爸爸的孩子。（不知道理解得对不对）

Under German law (until some time in the 90’s) a boy had to have his parents’ permission to marry until he turned 21. This, therefore, was their first chance.
在德国法律之下（直到90年代的某个时候），男方在21岁之前必须遵守他父母对于婚姻的要求。因此，这是他们第一次有机会结婚，就像照片里这样。（阿胖懂了，感谢娃娃）

But the seed of doubt planted in his head created huge problems for a normal father/daughter relationship like he had with my sister. Today, I can clearly see my father’s genes in my cheekbones and forehead.
但是怀疑的种子已经种在了他的脑海中，使得他不能像对我的妹妹那样，与我以正常的父女关系相处。现在，我可以很明显看到我父亲的基因，在我面颊骨和额头上的表现，这证明了我确实是他的孩子。

That little piece of knowledge has helped me forgive them both.
这些我后来才了解到的事情，让我原谅了我的父母。

单词表：
scapegoat n.替罪羊
mercantile adj.商人的,商业的,经商的,重商主义的,以金钱为目的的
cheekbones n. 面颊骨,颧骨
paternal adj. 父亲的；得自父亲的；父亲般的