Woman unknowingly married her father


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The next time you think you?re having a bad day, image how Valerie Spruill felt when she discovered that her husband and her father are the same person.

Not that her life had been a breeze four decades earlier when she found out at the age of 9 that the man she thought was her father was actually her grandfather, and that a person who had been identified as a ?family friend? was actually her mother.

Spruill didn?t learn until later that her mom also was one of three ?night ladies,? as she terms it, who testified in the infamous 1980 corruption trial of Summit County Probate Judge James Barbuto.

The 60-year-old Doylestown woman wants to show other folks born into miserable situations that they can still lead good, productive, fulfilling lives.

Spruill has. Now retired, she worked for 34 years in the accounting department at Goodyear. She has three kids and eight grandkids.

Although Spruill has fought through serious health problems ? she believes they were brought on by the stress of discovering the longtime family secret in 2004, when her husband/father died ? she is relentlessly upbeat and optimistic.

For years, she overheard odd whispers she couldn?t figure out. She finally learned the truth from an uncle not long after her husband/father?s death.

When asked to estimate how many people know about this, she laughs and says, ?Half of Akron.?

Spruill says she confirmed the relationship with a DNA test. And if anyone doubts it, she says, she still has plenty of his DNA: About five years ago, she found a hairbrush of his that somehow had become lodged under their dresser.

Now, I think it?s safe to say there aren?t a lot of support groups for people who marry their fathers. Fortunately, Spruill has been working with a therapist since she found out. She praises the therapist for helping her realize she did nothing wrong.

?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.?

Still, the pain understandably persists. As she tells her tale to a writer whom she doesn?t know but says she trusts, an occasional drop of moisture slides down her dark brown skin toward a mouth that can?t seem to avoid curling upward in the corners even as she dredges up the most traumatic of memories.

The man in question, Percy Spruill, died in April 1998 at the age of 60. Born in Mississippi, he worked in Akron as a truck driver and, later, as a parking-lot attendant at Morley Health Center.

He and Valerie?s mother hooked up when he was only 15.

We?re not sure how many offspring Percy Spruill helped produce, but at one point, apparently, he figured that one of them would be a suitable spouse.

Although Valerie says she is not 100 percent certain he knew, because he never talked about it, she strongly believes he was aware of the taboo he had committed but was simply afraid to tell her.

Spruill also is motivated to tell her tale in the hope she can locate additional siblings she didn?t know existed.

?My biggest goal is to find them and let ?em know that [their mother] loved them, no matter what. And [to tell them], ?Thank God she gave you away like she did me, so you could have a beautiful life.?

?It?s not a shame to be given away. Most of the time it?s a blessing.

?And you have to see that blessing that God gave you and accept that hand. Because everybody?s dealt a hand, and it?s not always good and it?s not always bad. But if you live that hand that God gave you, it?s gonna be all right. It?s gonna be all right. Yes, it is.?

When she learned that Christine, the nice-looking woman who visited the house, was her mom, Spruill hated her. Hated the deception. Hated that her mom had tossed her in a taxi at 3 months old and shipped her permanently to Grandma?s house. Hated that she knew nothing about her siblings.

But well before her mother died in 1984, the daughter made amends, thanks in part to the religious beliefs imbued by her grandparents, whom she credits with doing a wonderful job of raising her.

?God changed my life,? Spruill says. ?It was God, through me, that let [Mom] see God for herself. ...

?I used to pray and pray and pray that one day God would touch her heart and change her, and He did.

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So now, by law, she is required to move to West Virginia! :laugh:

Seriously though... I thought that the blood test before the wedding is supposed to help prevent this type of thing.

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If neither knew then no problem. But given that the father knew, what a prick. And most of the people around her knew. What ######. Blood test before marraige? where in the world does this happen?

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If neither knew then no problem. But given that the father knew, what a prick. And most of the people around her knew. What ######. Blood test before marraige? where in the world does this happen?

By the sound of it, HER family were aware too, probably from before them getting married too, they are the biggest scum for not bringing it up ASAP instead of waiting for his death

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