Why my mother kept everything secret from me, I'll never know.
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Maybe she wasn't keeping it a secret. In the fuss and bother of raising
children, it's way too easy to remember all the little things we have
stuck away that belonged to our ancestors. Maybe she just remembered
it while thinking of what she should clean out before moving/having company/
having an inspection/workers in, etc. There area a lot of reasons. Why not
simply ask her? That is, if you don't think she is sensitive about something
that happened to or by these same ancestors.