They almost took those secrets to the grave.

"We also found that he'd been paying not only the mortgage, but also depositing about $5K per month into this woman's bank account. She was his mistress, and was literally less than half his age (he was in his late 70s, she was 32). Grandma refused to believe it and to her dying day swore we made it all up (and fabricated the bank statements, property deed, etc.). But it was real, and it was stunning."

"In the house, we found more than 20 wrapped presents and envelopes of money, addressed to all of us. They were for the big occasions that she knew she wouldn't live to see us have. Before she had died, she had organized 21st birthday presents for those of us who weren't yet 21, engagement presents, and wedding presents, each with a card written by hand. I remember being so overwhelmed with emotion. She was an incredible woman who loved her family dearly and wanted to celebrate her grandchildren, even if she couldn't be there herself.

We did wait to open the presents. Many are still unopened. I recently got married, and I opened a present full of linen. A few tea towels and towels, which grandma had embroidered herself, as well as some antique lace doilies that had belonged to her mother. It was very special, and quite surreal."

"And her bank accounts...thousands upon thousands of dollars. No one had any idea, she lived so simply and never spent a dime on anything unnecessary. I'm sure her financialโ€‹ paranoia was due to growing up in the Great Depression. It made for the best scavenger hunt ever, though."

"My dad somehow called someone from the FBI who came out, took one look, and then called someone else. He waited with us until someone who didn't work for the FBI but had clearance over this stuff arrived.

The first guy left, and the other dude asked us where everything was. We showed him the boxes, he took them, loaded them in his car, and drove away. A week later, the house was robbed, and a lot of my grandparents' special things were taken...including several large file cabinets."

"Their son (who became my son) was 3 when his mom died and 12 when his dad died. I destroyed that letter. I honestly think he never, ever needed to see that letter. I'd much rather he's left with the illusion that his parents had a perfect, if tragic, marriage."

"Afterward, as I was the only contact, I was asked by his solicitor if I would clean out his apartment. So off I went. I found his will and a few other documents. He wasn't a millionaire or anything, but he had a few rare coins, $50K in a bank account, and over $300K in shares. His will said that it was to be divided up between certain charities and other groups. However, what was in his diary was the real kicker. He was to have an appointment with his solicitor the following week after he died to make changes to his will to make me the sole beneficiary of his estate. I simply pretended not to see it and move on to his old photo box that contained pictures of him in drag. Amazing as he was a very devout gent."

"She also had a pink wedding dress, which I thought was strange, but she said her sister bought it for her. Turns out there was no church wedding...because she wasn't allowed to be married in the church, and she wasn't allowed to wear white.

My grandmother was from a small town, and her family sent her away to a friend's farm a few hours away for her pregnancy and birth and then had a shotgun wedding in someone's living room when my grandfather returned from the Air Force on leave.

She kept the secret from everyone... I think only her brother-in-law would have known, and he didn't tell a soul. We even threw my grandparents a 50th wedding anniversary party on what would have actually been their 49th.

I was cleaning out her closet when I found the 'when I die' binder she made of all her important paperwork and realized the dates didn't match up to her binder and how I had been filling forms out...then I did the math and realized why. My mom and her siblings were shocked."

"Well, when we went in there, it was practically a shrine to me and my sister. Every certificate, photo, newspaper clipping, program, etc. was hung up on the walls of his office. A number of people came by to pay their respects as we were clearing things out and, again and again, I heard 'he was so proud of you,' 'I've heard so many things about you, it's nice to meet you in person,' and 'You were so special to your father. He spoke the world of you.'

Honestly, you could have knocked me over with a feather. Definitely one of the more bittersweet moments in my life.

"In the letter, his grandmother explained how she was never able to have children, and how ashamed she and her husband always felt (big Catholics, in early 20th-century Mexico). She always wanted to have a child, so they decided to take a very long trip through Europe, from which they would come back with a baby. This baby was my dad's mom, who always looked a bit different from her family (as white as it can be, bluest eyes you've ever seen). They found her in an orphanage run by some nuns in the north of France and immediately fell in love with her. Adoption was a big taboo at the time, so no one ever knew about it. The story they told was that she had gotten pregnant during their trip and had given birth to the baby in Europe. They brought her back to Mexico and registered her as a newborn, even though she was already several years old.

My grandmother lived all her life thinking she was her parents' biological daughter. At 45, through a letter, she found out that she was adopted, that she was actually older than what she always thought, and that she was actually French, not Mexican.

My dad had to tell her all of this through the phone, while trying to understand a birth certificate written in French. My grandma eventually ended up hiring a private investigator and finding her family in France, but that's another story."

Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.