16 people share the most harmless little secrets they've been keeping for years.

Secrets don't always have to be dirty demons that burden us with inside knowledge, sometimes they're adorable, silly, and heartwarming tales that can restore your faith in humanity...

So, if you've been holding on to a not-so-spicy, petty, or wholesome secret for years, here are the people who dared to share theirs to the wonderful world of the internet.

1.

When my wife died, she had been working on “special occasion” letters for all of our kids. Towards the end, the cancer had spread to her brain and she wasn’t able to focus on writing much, and when she did, it was often unintelligible gibberish.

I tried to help her by taking dictation but she said it would mean more if it was in her own handwriting and wanted to finish it. She slipped into a coma and died after only getting through a handful of letters for our eldest child, leaving addressed envelopes only for our other two kids.

I knew this would be devastating for the three kids, and possibly create conflict, so I paid a woman who specialized in calligraphy to literally duplicate my wife’s handwriting.

I gave her the content, channeling my wife’s comments she made to me about what I thought would be meaningful words to our three kids when I had helped her dictate a few. And, as she wanted, I have passed them out on special occasions of wedding dates, birth of first child dates, first day of college dates, etc.

My kids don’t know. They’ve even shared the ones she actually wrote with ones written by her surrogate and thus far the secret remains safe.

I’ll take it to my grave. I consider it harmless as it was her intent but cancer robs so much from people afflicted with it…including their best, most sincere attempts at helping others cope with the loss themselves. - Walleyevision

2.

My friend is a major, major, Death Cab for Cutie fan. They came to our city a couple years ago, and I knew she wouldn’t be able to afford the tickets to go. She was upbeat about it, but I know she was devastated by it.

I bought tickets. Two days before the show, I told her that the friend I originally planned to take couldn’t go, and would she please come with me? There was no other friend. Told her I loved the band and would be sad to miss them. She of course accepted, and had the time of her life.

She’s doing much better now, but every couple of Christmases or Birthdays, she gets me some Death Cab merchandise because “she knows how much I love the band.”

I can’t stand their music. I literally have them blocked on Spotify. But now it’s gone too far where I can’t tell her. - chernygal

3.

When my brother was 4 he won a stuffed animal from a claw machine and it was his favourite thing ever, slept with it every night for weeks he fell asleep on the couch and was carried to bed but left his stuffed animal on the floor and the dog decided to tear it to pieces during the night. I spent $40 trying to win another one and put it under his bed for him to find. - minimegs2023

4.

I can't remember why, but I was mad at my Dad for something. As revenge I added extra chili powder and hot sauce to our family chili. Turns out my family never really added enough seasoning to the chili as it was, and the food actually tasted a lot better as a result of my revenge tactic. I've overcorrected as an adult on seasoning food at times, but I do make a mean chili. - tacobelmont

5.

As a previous nanny, I've seen many first steps and heard many first words, but I never share that. When I leave I say something like, I think little one is soooo close to walking/talking!

It's a special moment parents deserve, who am I to take that from them? One baby was walking with me for a full 2 weeks before he showed his new trick to his parents. - griddles96

6.

Every thanksgiving in San Luis Obispo my best friend and I are in charge of pies. We go to the Madonna Inn, a gloriously outlandish hotel/restaurant/bakery/resort, and ask for two of their pie boxes.

We then go to Safeway and buy two much cheaper pies and put them in the boxes. We bring them to our large family gathering and everyone compliments the wonderful pies because of how amazing the Madonna Inn’s reputation is for baked desserts.

I’d like to say this is because of concerns about cost or because the Safeway pies are better, but the truth is my bf and I have been doing this for about a decade now and it’s just become one of our favorite traditions together. - gueuze_geuze

7.

My mom won a prize from SiriusXM at the beginning of the pandemic that never arrives even after she followed up. She had been so excited to win something for the first time that I finally found a record store with the items she won, paid for them, and arranged with them to use a generic shipping label and include an apology for the delay and congrats for winning label. She loves her prize and 'forgives' them for rhe delay. - AtlantaTJ

8.

When I was dating my now wife, her son took my car for a joyride while we were out of town. When we got back from our out of town trip I noticed something was amiss on my car. When I got in it, I noticed the sunshade was installed backwards, I would never do that on accident.

I then pulled the dashcam footage. He took it around the neighborhood. He didn't do any donuts, or burn any tires. Just a nice slow stroll through the neighborhood with the music playing and I assume waved and some people. I ended up just handling it man to man. he was like 17-18 at the time. I never told his mom about it. - landob

9.

I'm Canadian, and in high school, I had a crush on this girl who was originally born in the US. To try and impress her, I pretended I was an American who immigrated to Canada too.

I was so committed that I even gave her the address of my old home: it was really just a hotel I had stayed in while on vacation in Florida with my family. Since it was the early 2000s, she never verified. We didn't end up dating, but to this day, I never came clean. I wonder if she still thinks I'm an American. - taalleerling

10.

My dad is a doctor. When my daughter was little she was terrified of hurting her ankle. Like anytime she got the slightest twinge or rolled it slightly, she was convinced it was broken. My dad would take her to the office and run a fetal heart Doppler over her little ankle and tell her it was an X-RAY machine and her ankle was fine.

She’s 13 and still convinced that papa took actual x rays of her ankle. I’m never going to tell her otherwise. - YourMothersButtox

11.

In 1998 I had a friend who was stuck in a very toxic situation at her home. She had an opportunity for a new start across country in Oregon. She had a Dodge Neon that was hanging on for dear life and decided to pass on the opportunity for fear the car wouldn’t make the trip.

I told her I had a friend that was a mechanic that owed me a favor and he would give the car a tune up for free. I didn’t really have a friend that was a mechanic. We were both 18 with not much money but I used all of my savings to pay to have her car made road worthy for the trip. She’s a mother of 4 now with a great job and thriving in Oregon. - 04Z51Vette

12.

I was about 10 years old and was pretending to be sick to avoid going to school. This was the 1980's so the old-school, glass tube, mercury-filled thermometers were still a thing.

My dad was getting ready to leave for work as I worked my magic to convince my mom to let me stay home for the day. Neither one of them was having it. I persisted.

Out of frustration, my mom grabbed the thermometer and put it under my tongue. I knew it would read 98.6 and this was my only shot to avoid school for the day.

Both of my parents stepped out of the room for a moment. I looked over and saw my dad's piping hot cup of coffee sitting on the counter awaiting his morning commute. I quickly dipped the thermo into the hot java.

It instantly shattered emptying the toxic mercury into the coffee along with tiny shards of glass. I panicked. In my mind, there were only a couple possible outcomes. My dad dies of heavy metal poisoning and a lacerated esophagus. Or, I fess up to what I did.

I could hear them coming around the corner about to return to the kitchen. At the last possible second, I swatted my dad's mug off the kitchen counter smashing it on the floor creating a coffee explosion in my mom's freshly cleaned kitchen.

They burst in the kitchen aghast at the mess I created. I reply with a flurry of sorrys and apologize profusely for being clumsy. My dad is furious because now he won't have coffee on his way to work. My mom is pissed and she starts cleaning up the mess.

In the chaos everyone forgets about my claims of illness. I slipped the remainder of the broken thermo into the trash and went to the bus stop saving my father from a horrible death--at least in my mind at the time. Until this day, I have never told anyone about this. - from_the_interwebz

13.

One day I came home late at night drunk and decided to walk my dog. Just when we arrived outside my house my dog attacked a racoon hanging around the area. I ended up wrestling my malamute and freed the racoon from his jaws.

Here's the thing. I was drunk and the racoon kinda just stared at me infront of me and I decided to try and pet the racoon. I got maybe one pet in before it took a chunk out of my finger.

I ran into the house leaving a trail of blood up to my brothers room for help. A sleepless night in the hospital and 4 consecutive rabies shots later was the result.

Everyone asked me what happened and I just told them while I heroically wrestled my dog to save the racoon I got bit in the process. They still don't know the real story. It still gets brought up 10 years year. - August-thecow

14.

I convinced my sister I had entered us both in a blog giveaway, I won a coupon but she won the grand prize , a $300 gift card to Lane Bryant. My sister was a size 16, and desperately needed new clothes but would spend money on her baby grandkids and thin adult daughters. This was the only way I could make sure she spent it on herself. It’s been 10 years. She’s doesn’t know. - Remarkable_Story9843

15.

My mum is a health nut who wouldn’t let us have cheese in the house when I was kid. When I was mid 20s, I bought a unit and my dad was helping me fix stuff up so I provided lunch. I said to him - bet you’re going to hate going back to work next week and not have any cheese on your sandwiches.

It was then he told me his deepest secret, he had been buying blocks of cheese at work for years. I had no idea he was crafty. And my mum still doesn’t. Poor dad has been retired for years though so not sure on the current cheese consumption status. - rumblemumbles

16.

First marriage to my late wife, on the day of the wedding, the ring got stolen out of my car. I was freaking out. My two best men went into overdrive and took a picture I had if the ring and went to I don't know how many jewelry stores explaining what had happened and if they had a ring that was similar.

They went to this really great jewelry maker so said, 'I have something that is really close, give me a bit and I can make it perfect.'

He worked his a#s off and got it done with about an hour to spare, plus the managed to get my window fixed.

The three of us are the only ones who know. I ended up using that jewelry maker for any jewelry I needed and well I haven't stopped yet.

He ended up telling my best men to not worry about the price and for me to come down after the honeymoon to work it out. I did and he gave it to me at the cost of the materials. He is a great guy. He retired during COVID. - UtahCyan