Sister or Scammer: After 35 Years, Is She My Fam? | KARAMO

So Cecily popped up in our family like 30, 35 years ago claiming to be my Uncle Andrew's daughter, and that would make her my cousin Audie's sister. So my Uncle Andrew was killed in his late 20s, I believe. So I'm here to speak for him because he can't speak for himself. She is not my biological cousin at all. It does bother me that she's claiming to be Audie's sister and there's no proof.

Has your cousin Reba always expressed doubts about Ceci?

Always.

Yes. And what has that done to you and the family?

It has actually put me in the middle.

Mm-hmm.

Our family has had issues as a result of it because my children believe that Ceci is my sister. Mm. Like you said, it's been 35 years.

Yes.

And at this point, I am, at this point, I just feel like she is my sister. We've done everything together. We've done holidays together. Our children were raised together. It's been a lot. It's been a lot.

'Cause 35 years of someone denying like you could be part of this family is gonna affect more than one person. That's decades of denial of like, Confusion. So how did, let's take this back. How did you find out about Ceci?

So I, years ago I was in a lounge and a distant relative came to me and told me I had a sister outta nowhere while we're at the lounge having a good time. Yeah. And I wasn't understanding what he meant, but I took heed and I asked my mother and I said, Mom, do you know of anyone that Daddy may have had a child with? And she said, there was this one girl. And when she said that, my heart dropped.

Yeah.

I just kind of knew. You know, I didn't know, but it made me feel like I knew. Yeah. You know, she said there was this one girl, and she spoke on her name, and she said it was Sassy's mother. And she said, if that's who it is, you should know. I said, well, I've seen the girl that he was referring to last week. At a different place.

Yeah.

A night, little nightclub. And I went back there for 3 weeks looking for her.

Oh, wow.

After that. Wow. And I went to, I had, yeah, it was 3 weeks and I seen her there. And I was sitting at the bar and I walked over to her and I said, excuse me. Never seen her before. Knew the girl she was with. 'Cause she's from the same area as me. We grew up in the same area, you know? So I walked over to her, I said, "I believe you may be my sister." And she immediately got emotional and started crying. I said, "Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait." I said, "What is your mother's name?" 'Cause my mother had told me what her mother's name—

What that woman's name would be.

Yeah, and she didn't give me that name. So I said, "Wait, no." "No, that's okay, my fault, different." Yeah, my fault. Yeah, I didn't, I got y'all worked up for nothing. But when I walked away, she said, "Oh, my biological father?" 'Cause I'm adopted. And when I said yes, she told me the name of her mother. So I said, "Yeah, you may possibly be my sister." So why do you think your cousin doubts her?

Her?

Well, Sassy just came out of nowhere. We never knew her. We never heard about her. No family ever mentioned her. Um, um, Reba doesn't believe she looks like any of us. She doesn't believe her children look like any of us. She's just been very adamant about it. I mean, you seen the—

yeah, the tape. The tape.

She is not playing. She's serious, and she will tell you. And sometimes, you know, it becomes A little disrespectful, you know? And I feel sorry for my sister because, you know, she'll say it right in front of her. You know, she don't have no mercy.

Yeah, no filter 'cause she's staying true to her conviction. She says you're not in the family.

That's right.

How did you feel when you found out about her?

Initially, I had mixed emotions 'cause I'm my only father's daughter.

Yes.

And so I get a lot of love from that side of the family, 'cause I'm what he has left. 'Cause he was killed when I was 3. And I was happy to have a sister, but at the same time, I'm like, "Oh, I'm gonna have to share her." Yeah. With my family, with my uncles and my aunt, you know, my cousins.

Did you have any doubts ever?

Oh yeah. Yeah, I have doubts. I mean, I have a— I believe that she's my sister, but at the same time, it's not, it's never been confirmed.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, all this long time, it's never been confirmed.

35 years. It makes sense. Long time. Because it's one thing that you try to accept her.

Yes.

Which shows the woman and the character you have.

Yes.

But then it's like no one, and you were younger at this point, so no adult in that age was there to confirm No one's taking the test. So it's like, of course there's always gonna be a lingering doubt.

That's right.

And so you two have a good relationship now. I heard you say your kids get raised, you were raised together.

Yeah, yeah.

So you talk.

We've been on trips, family events. We have a family breakfast for Christmas honoring my grandmother, my father's mother. And her and her children are at that. I mean, everything we do, we include her.

What will you do if she's not your biological sister?

I won't do anything. I'll continue to love her and keep her and keep her close to my heart.

So what made you want to find your biological family?

In the beginning, I had no, no desire at all.

Yes.

Got pregnant. My parents took me to Catholic Social Services where they adopted me. To do counseling to give my child up for adoption or move out. And I just couldn't do it. So I moved out before she was born. When she was born, it's like now I have this biological relative and it brought up all these feelings. So I went back to counseling and part of the counseling, she thought it'd be a good idea to read through the records and give me non-identifying information except At one point, she said the father's full name.

Oh.

And I let her keep talking so she wouldn't complete it.

Yeah, I know how that go.

And at the end she pulled out a phone book and was like, well, there's a couple. And I said, what? And I said his name. And she looked at me and just like went pale. Yeah. And how'd you know that? You said it.

Yeah, you said it.

She gave me a list of dos and don'ts. And after that, it became a real person and the search started.

Yeah, the price of these tests are expensive. And so like for me, it's so important to be able to give someone this truth and also provide this where you don't have to come out of pocket because it costs a lot.

Definitely.

Yeah, so I gotta be honest with you and I gotta ask you a real question. How will you feel if you find out that Andrew is not your father?

A part of me feels like since when I found the family, he had been deceased. When I found my biological mother's side of the family, she also had been deceased. And I feel like this will be another deceased 'cause there's no other leads. I was adopted in '65. You know, Martin Luther King, the civil rights stuff was still going on. This was a biracial child. You know, they didn't care about the fathers. They didn't keep records on the fathers. So he's the only one, 'cause I had all the records since both of 'em are deceased. He's the only one. So this will be it either way. And I just wanna know the truth.

Either way.

Yes, yes.

Okay then. Well, I think before we get this DNA truth, we got one person to meet, which is your cousin Reba.

Bring her out. Okay.

He talking about bring her out. All right, let's meet Reba. Reba, come on out.

Hi. How are you?

Can I hug? Yes, of course you can.

You look like you smell good. OK. You are?

You do? Thank you.

You smell good as well. Yes.

OK.

I love you, girl. I love you too. I love you. I love you too. She's not my cousin.

She didn't even waste no time. She said—

She's not. I love Ceci. She's been in the family forever, but she's not my cousin.

Why are you so adamant about this?

She just popped up from nowhere. You know, from nowhere. Now here she comes claiming to be my deceased uncle's— Oh boy, oh boy.

Go ahead, baby. I'm sorry.

I'm not even trying to hurt her feelings. I love her. Nothing's gonna change as far as our relationship.

As.

I love her, but she's not my cousin.

Why after all this time do you want her to take this DNA test?

I've wanted it from the beginning.

Yes, she has.

But nobody ever, they took my Aunt Peggy's words, she could be Jackie, she could be Andrew's if Jackie's, if her mother's name was Jackie. My family took that and ran with it.

Yeah.

And said that's Andrew's daughter.

Well, I'll tell you this.

It's a lot of things, I'm telling you.

You've been waiting 35 years for this DNA truth.

Yes.

And I think it's time for you to find out your identity and who you are.

Yes, thank you, thank you so much.

As I always tell people, this is not my truth to open, this is only your truth.

Yeah.

What are you thinking right now?

This been a long time coming.

Says you don't Don't cry, please don't cry.

This has been a long time coming and— You're very welcome. You know, it's hard to say what you'll do. You say, you know, I hope if a situation happens I would behave like that, but I really don't know until we open this envelope. And I'm praying that Reed was wrong.

Yeah, I hope I am wrong, but I don't believe it.

Oh my God.

You ready? I'm ready.

Oh, he is. Oh my God. I'm so sorry.

I'm so sorry.

I love you. I'm so sorry.

Thank you.

Thank you. Too much in common.

Sorry.

I'm so sorry.

I love you.

Look in here.

Oh my God.

I'm so sorry. Did he see this on my neck?

You got the same thing on yours as well?

I am so sorry. This is sisterly love.

Sisterly love.

I'm so sorry.

'Cause that's what we call each other.

I'm so sorry.

I love you.

I'm sorry.

I love you.

I'm so sorry.

You did what you thought you had to do.

Thank you, Lord.

You're the protector of the family.

Right, thank you, Lord.

She really is the protector of the family.

She had to do what she had to do.

I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. She's one of the oldest cousins. I'm sorry. I won't treat you bad ever. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Please forgive me.

You are forgiven.

It's okay, Bree.

I forgive you.

I'm sorry.

I forgive you.

There is so much love in this family.

I love you.

There's so much love in this family.

Family.

And Ceci, I'm so happy for you. I am happy for you. I have to tell you, while this, when this was happening, I literally was in my mind praying like, please God, please God, this woman deserves the proper answer. And so to see you open that, 'cause I don't know the results before it, I was like, please don't let this be not there. I'mma thank God.

You know what, had it gone the other way, you, I've never wanted to be on no talk show for any reason. And, but she's put her heart and soul into Colleen over the years. And like I said, it just got to a point, I wanna know the truth. But if I had to do it, I'm so grateful it was with you because I know your background and I know you wouldn't let us do messed up. And I appreciate you for that.

I appreciate you.

I appreciate you for that.

So how y'all feel? This is really your sister now. There's not a doubt. You already treat each other as sisters.

You hold us up from the party. Oh my God, I keep reading it like, oh my God.

Honestly, I gotta tell you, you are the reason I have a show because being able to bring families together is what this show's about and I'm so thankful. Thank you. Yeah, so I'm so thankful. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Thank you so much.

Oh, thank you.

Oh, very much.

I appreciate you because for you to switch immediately and say I'm sorry, the growth And the love that y'all have as a family, I mean, your father has to be smiling down of the girls that he has in front of him. I know he is. I know he is because y'all are beautiful.

Yes, we are.

Okay.

It is a great sight. Yeah.

Well, listen, thank you so much. Congratulations again. I'm so happy for y'all. And when y'all have y'all celebration, let me know so I can come party with y'all.

Okay?

Thank you.

Yeah.

I'll come down with y'all.

You're welcome.

You're very welcome. Seriously, thank you. You're very welcome. Very welcome.

Thank you very, very much.

Ever. Yes. So I really, really appreciate you, and thank you for everything you've done.

Of course.

You're so welcome. All right, everyone, stay with us, friends. We'll be right back with more.