Three in one?

This was an interesting weekend for me. Nick headed off on a golf weekend. And Mollie headed to the beach. I usually love Nick’s golf weekends. I can do whatever I like – stay up late, eat when and what I want, and write to my heart’s content without feeling guilty. It didn’t work out quite that way since I had to dog sit for my grand dog.

She stared at me longing every time I ate. She wanted to play when I wanted to write, she even stood staring down the hall letting me know she felt it was time for bed! Oh well, what’s a grandmother to do?

But it was a good weekend and despite the guilt inducing stares I wrote over 3,000 words – excellent for me. But I got the real surprise of the weekend on Sunday afternoon. I got a text from my niece. Lovely woman, we’ve always gotten along beautifully, but we’ve never been particularly close. 

Her text asked if she could talk to me. Um… what? Well sure I told her. Call any time.

Her response was, “Could we meet in person? Would you have time this afternoon?”

Well that sounded serious and I told her –  absolutely, come ahead. So as I straighten a little for her I’m wondering what in the world. Her parents live close by, I always assumed she was closer to her other aunts. Why would she want to talk to me?

Then it hit me, I only have expertise in two areas. Writing spanking books and being the mother of a gay child. My niece does not write.

I have ‘known’ for a long time that her sixteen-year-old son is gay. I obviously never cared, but I noticed the only time he looks up from his phone is when I mention LJ or Collin and when I do he hangs on my every word. That and other things were big clues to me.

She began with, “You know about Sam, don’t you?” and I assured her I did. And then I just let her talk. She’s know for a while she just wanted to talk to someone who shared her experience. His dad’s fine with it as are his grandparents. And Sam is out at school and perfectly happy with himself. Her greatest worry is her thirteen year old daughter whose prissy, preppy, conservative, ‘Christian,’ friends have all dumped her. 

As an adult I want to say, screw the little bitches. But when you’re thirteen and your friends dump you … well that’s just hard.

My niece was also greatly surprised that there were three gay guys in our family. There’s LJ  of course, my nephew (who’s mom say is just in a phase. He’s twenty-six and this ‘phase’ has lasted more than twenty years now. But she’s sure you can ‘pray the gay away.’ Gag!) And now Sam.

I told her this three in one was no surprise. I’m in a ‘mothers of gay offspring’ FB group and many of these moms have more than one gay child. I feel for my niece many of her friends are/were the mothers of the little middle school bitches. 

I tried to assure her this was nothing – embrace it! She’s always going to have a gay son – stand by him proudly! I wouldn’t make LJ straight for anything. If I did he would be a different person and that would be tragic.  

I’m so glad she came to me (instead of my conservative SIL). I think I helped her relax a little. I told her we could talk any time she liked and that if her daughter wanted to talk to Mollie, she’d always be available.

It makes me wonder – Nick’s family has never been supportive of LJ and now there is a gay child in three of the four families … as my nephew said, “They better get used to us. We’re going to outnumber them soon!”