Modern Love The Podcast is supported by...

Produced by the Island at WBUR Boston.

From the New York Times and WBUR Boston, this is Modern Love.

The New York Times and WBUR Boston.

Stories of Love, Laws and Redemption.

I'm your host, Megna Chakrabardi.

Never tell our business to strangers.

That's what Jennifer Mascio was told growing up,

but it wasn't until she was an adult that she learned the reason why.

Jennifer's essay is read by Ruth Wilson.

Ruth has starred in the affair and Luther,

you can see her now in his dark materials on HBO.

Nine years ago, when my mother suffered a minor heart attack,

my father and I learned that for more than two decades,

she had been lying about her age.

She was actually three years older than my father,

not two years younger as she had always said.

Apparently sensing that her real age might be relevant to a treatment,

she had given the nurse her actual birth date.

And then my father and I saw it,

scrolled on her plastic hospital bracelet.

That my mother had maintained this deception for so long

...