Biological Mother Pretended To Be Son's Sister For 18 Years

A Kansas radio producer has turned the camera on his own family to help him understand just how a huge family secret couold have been kept so long. For the first 18 years of his life, Steve Lickteig thought he was the adopted son of a World War II vetran and his wife, reports NPR. His adopted parents ran a farm in Kansas and raised Steve and eight of their biological children. Steve wondered all of his life who his real parents were untill his 18th birthday, when two of his best friends told him the truth. His asdopted parents were, really his biological grandparents, and his older sister Joanie was his biological mother. " I do not have a very strong recollection of it, actually. But, what I do remember is it was right before high school graduation, the night before, Lickteig said. " They walked into my bed room they shut the door and Vance said, you know, we have something we want to tell you, and then he just blurted it out, it just sort of came out of him, He said I know who your mom is" In his film " Open Sccret" Lickteig explains how everybody around him knew for their entire lives that woman pretending to be his sister was his biological mother. After being caught in a compromising situation with his then girlfriend Lickteig decided to confront his parents. " Joanie looked at me, my mother and said I have no idea what you talking about,' said Lickteig. She kept denying and denying and finally my dad slammed his hand down on his lay-z-boy, " Damn it, you just tell him" After his biological mother finally admitted the secret, it was never spoken of again, until the Open Secret documentary was produced. " I was trying to understand what she must have gone through to have had a baby and then see your own parents take the baby and then tell you that the story is going to be that you have to tell this baby that you are his sister, not his actual mother, and you have to live that for basically for rest of your life," said Lickteig. He said he has not kept in touch with his biological mother after he produced the documentary, an outcome he did not anticipate. " She just said to me, I saw your film, I understand why you did it, I do not want anything more to do with it going forward, so please do not ask me to be involved in it."