MELISSA GILBERT How I Made PEACE WITH MY PAST

THE STAR DIDN'T LEARN THE SAD TRUTH ABOUT HER FATHER'S DEATH UNTIL MANY YEARS LATER

- Rick Egusquiza

Melissa Gilbert couldn't help gushing after meeting her newborn granddaughter recently. "Everyone say hi to the newest addition to our family," she shared after the birth of Romy Busfield. "Absolute heaven!"

Family has always been prized by the former Little House on the Prairie star, but as she's gotten older, Melissa, 58, has become keenly aware of just how precious and fragile life can be. Although she lost her father when was just 11, Melissa has only come to terms with his suicide, which was hidden from her for most of her life, in the past decade. "It's a very difficult thing to carry," Melissa admits.

She and her brother Jonathan, 55, were adopted by Paul Gilbert, a comedian and dancer, and his wife, actress Barbara Crane, as babies. The couple split when Melissa was 6, but she has loving memories of Paul. "My father was the most incredibly talented, vivacious, funny, loving, fair person I ever knew," she says.