A Life Half Told: Unraveling my story through DNA

What if you’re the lucky one?

At sixty-five years old, William Aperance was proud of the life he’d built: a comfortable home in upstate New York, a successful career managing country clubs, and, most importantly, a happy family. Despite growing up in poverty and neglect, with a sense that he never quite belonged, William and his wife, Kim, had created a loving home for their three children.

With retirement on the horizon, one Christmas gift challenged everything. The results from the DNA kit under the tree rocked the foundations of his identity, and everything he thought he knew growing up in his troubled family. Bewildered, he searched for the truth of his paternity. Would this genetic revelation break his family further apart, like so many others? With his daughter Courtney, William has woven together the threads of his family story in a testament to resilience. Combining memories from his chaotic upbringing with the navigation decades later of hidden truths and unanswered questions, he grapples with the complexities of unanswered questions, forging new bonds, and embracing family.

A Life Half Told is an intimate exploration of identity, love, and the surprising discovery that it’s never too late for healing and acceptance.