[Chapter 8
Phyllis] Here's a new story that many
haven't heard before. It centers on one woman
having to question, "Are the people in my family
really my family?" This is the unexpected story of Phyllis, and this is her chapter in our journey
from dysfunction to dynasty. [I Am Second Presents] [Dysfunction] [Dynasty] [The Robertson Family
Dysfunction to Dynasty] [Phil Robertson]
I went on a rebellious run
till I was 28. [Kay Robertson]
He was mean spirited,
he ran around on me. Smoked dope, he got drunk. [1975] A low point is when I ran Miss Kay
and the kids off. It's going to slow the party
and drinking down, it's going to get better. No. So I sat down with this guy, he said,
"Just love God and love your neighbor, and try to be good." Can you try?
I said, "I can try." [45 Years Later] So when, around 2017
at Christmas time, my oldest son took a DNA
like ethnicity test. [Phyllis]
And he was sharing the results and said, you know, this is really weird because everything that it's showing
is not what we've been told. I always had this sense of
maybe something is different about me. Somewhat in my looks, a lot in how I acted. We looked at the DNA matches
and my sister shows up as being a half sibling. So that's when I knew for sure that
my dad that I thought was my dad, that I shared with my brother
and sister all my life was not really my dad. Do I have a right to know
who my dad is? Does he have a right to know
he has a daughter? Is he even still alive? We started doing some research,
I could find surnames, common names, and I took that information
and called my mom and said, "So who's my dad?" And she was like, "Oh, I don't know,"
and she kinda hem hawed around a bit. And I said, "No, I have names,
I'm looking at last names. So who is he?" And she said, "Well, Phil."
I said, okay, Phil. And she said, "Well, he's the one that
made those duck whistles." I immediately went back
and thought wow, if you plug that in to the family tree
so to speak, it made all of the pieces fall in line. There's resources out there that help you to connect with your biological family. But there is nothing that said
if you find out that your biological dad is a celebrity,
this is what you should do. My sister had watched the show
and was more familiar and she said that, you know, his son is a pastor. And so we thought that a letter to the church was a safe place. And when we were looking on the website, we saw that Phil, he was going to be speaking
at the end of the year umm at the church
and we thought, you know, we can drive down there from Missouri, we can drive down there and... and listen to him speak.
And so that's what we did. We came, sat in the parking lot
and I was nervous like, am I really going to go through with this and walk in and... So we, it seems like everybody that walked in was wearing camo, and then we saw Phil walk in
with an entourage, which was interesting to see that your, you know, you're looking at who you believe to be your biological dad and he requires security. That was different, and I had to
take a deep breath, and I was tearful. You know, I just wasn't sure if I could
go through with it. My husband was there encouraging me. So we finally made it inside the building. We listened to him preach
and then he kind of shot out of there. We had another letter, an exact copy. I kind of felt a lot of anxiety,
I was not sure what to do. And I saw Jase, and I'm like well,
I took a deep breath, you know, I'm just going to do it.
I'm just going to walk up to him. And I did. And I said, "Hey, I have this letter,
would you please give it to your dad? It means a lot to me." And he's like, "Sure, sure."
And I saw him put it in his bag and I thought well, you know,
I think that letter might get to him. The first time I found out about
our daughter, was Alan came down and he said, "I've researched it,
I've known about it a month and now it's time to tell ya'll." So an adulterous event 45 years ago
steps forth a child. I don't know he could ever think
something like this would not happen. 'Cause I'd prepared my boys years ago when they were growing up, that there may be a boy
appear at our house that would look just like them.
And he would probably be their brother. So this was 44 year later
and it was a daughter. They lined up a paternity test. So we both got tested in our
respective places and the results came back. And they called me and they said,
"Phyllis we got the results back and you are, you know,
you're Phil Robertson's daughter. A long lost daughter." One of my boys said,
"Dad, it's a match." I said, "Bring her home.
Tell her to come on down." So we flew down and arrived at
the Monroe Airport. Walked off the plane, I was nervous. And Lisa spotted me before I spotted her, and I looked at her and I will never forget the look
on her face, it was just this... It's more of like I remember how it felt
than what she said. And it just, it felt like a belonging
and that being accepted and... I felt like coming home. We met Al, he was outside with the vehicle and we both were just tearing up. It was just kind of like
an odd moment like this is, you know, this is my brother
who I've never met, and he's always been my brother,
but I didn't know it. And then we were like,
okay, enough of that, we're not going to keep crying
the entire time. We drove from there to his house. And we pulled up and my dad and Miss Kay were standing in their driveway. I got out of the truck
and walked over to them and I was, I'm sure crying,
I don't even remember. I put my hands on her face
and I looked into her eyes to see if I could see
a little of me in there. And I did, and I thought,
welcome aboard. A daughter I didn't know I had. She was lost, but now she's found. We went to the living room
and sat down in the couch together just he and I And we started just visiting
and he was asking me questions, and I asked him questions. They'd warned me that he isn't
very nurturing, but I never felt that. From the very beginning I thought he was very loving, very kind. And so that was great moment
where we just sat on that couch and just visited
just the two of us. [During the next visit Phil invited
his daughter to move
next door to their home.] [She said yes
and moved 3 months later.] There were a lot of moments
in my life where I had to think about
who is God my Father, because my dad who raised me
he didn't parent. And sometimes I feel like I even had to take care of him to come back around and find out
that my real dad is very competent, intelligent,
loves Jesus, can recite scripture verbatim. To find that out it has helped me
view God the Father as more competent knowing that I can be, maybe try to be less in control myself and allow God to be more in control
and that does bring me comfort. We welcomed her with open arms
and here we are. Better late than never. I had mixed emotions about it,
of course. Those bad years,
I knew what Phil was doing, and I knew this could have been
what happened. You say, well, it was,
her life was caused from a sinful act. That is correct. But we know that in all things
God works for the good of those who love him and are called
according to his purpose. She wanted a relationship and we wanted a relationship with her. It's a wonderful thing to bring
a family unit together. I've always prayed and wanted
a daughter, I just never thought I'd be this age
when I got one. You thought you had four sons,
you actually had four sons and a daughter. Who knows, another one may step up, who knows? You just go with it. Do the right thing. Love God, love each other.
It'll work itself out. I'm not really sure,
still working on my name. Maybe it's Phyllis Harvey Thomas,
maybe it's Phyllis Robertson Thomas, but my name is Phyllis
and I Am Second. [I Am Second]
