Time Passes; Mom and Dad shortly before Dad died.

My Parents:
We had come a long way together. Dad had been prejudiced against blacks and gays, never having had a reason to confront the attitudes he was raised with. Mom was more adaptable, but fearful the neighbors would find out that her "son" wore women's clothes. Of the two, I preferred Dad's open hostility to Mother's, "I love you, but when you come over try to sneak in and out without anyone seeing you." attitude. Father, I knew, if he ever understood wouldn't give a damn what the neighbors thought and mother, I knew, if she ever really understood, would still want to keep me hidden away, a family secret.

Mother was always telling me how Dad didn't like this and Dad didn't like that about what my life. But when push came to shove my father, who twice had tried to killed me for wearing my mother's clothes when I was a child, became my defender. I was a good person and he knew it, let the neighbors be damned. Finally, my mother came around to feeling the same way, at least until Dad died. After Dad died she reverted a little bit and tried to keep me a secret from the women at her church.

When she ended up with Glen Billings, a good friend of mine from Tucson, the women at church no longer mattered. They didn't approve of Glen and Glen wouldn't let them use mom as their gopher anymore. My wearing dresses, in perspective, wouldn't have bothered them as much as Glen, a hard drinking, heavy smoking, cussing, grouch of an atheist.

Of course, the man has class. Mother started smoking and drinking because Glen did. It was killing her. Glen promised to stop drinking if she would, and kept his promise. He also told her if she would stop smoking he'd smoke only outside. He has kept that promise too. They still grouch and fight a lot, but they sincerely love each other and take care of each other. I have no complaints and am proud to say I introduced them. In my mind, he may never be the man my father was, but he's a good man and good to mother.

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