Every year we spend Thanksgiving with Kay's family, and since she is an only child most of her parents family has passed on. There are a few who I have come to adore and make it a point to chat with every Thanksgiving. This year the gathering seems to have gotten smaller as children are married and are spending the day with other and new relatives and families. For the past several years we have had our Thanksgiving Dinner at a church hall, but this year we returned to the family home; always lots of food is cooked and expected to be carted away by guests. Enough food for three times the number of people who come.
This year since my daughter was living in town, we invited her to meet Kay's family and eat Thanksgiving Dinner with them. Kay's family lives outside of Nichols, Ga, which is about an hour and a half away and one of those small towns that you could miss if you blinked or yawned. We were told that dinner was going to be served at 12:30 and we were right on time, but as it happens with families, we didn't eat for another hour. As we waited for the family to gather and wander in, they got a chance to meet and chat with my daughter and Kay's step-daughter, Julie. Everyone seemed to like Julie and the son of the host told her that if she was here she is family, which made Julie's day.
She seemed to brighten the room, chatting with everyone and fitting in with the family. Everyone expressed that they enjoyed meeting Julie; and Kay was surprised when one of her relatives made a point to tell Julie how pretty she was, as Kay says that she hardly ever compliments anyone. We don't know what she was expecting Julie to look like as the family knows that I am trans. Julie seem so relaxed and really enjoyed the Thanksgiving Dinner that someone else cooked.
Since Kay's relatives lives in the country, they have quite a lot of goats and some mules that have a large area to roam around in. Julie said that watching the goats brought back many memories of the time that she herded a rather large number of goats for someone for a year. She had a truck with a camper and two shepherd dogs to run the herd. Being able to spend the afternoon with Kay's family really made her day, as she had to eat again with her mother and brothers later that evening.
I am so glad that she was able to see how people react to me in a family gathering, that they know my story and have accepted me as a member Kay's family. I only hope that she can convey that to her brothers. Her one hope is that one day her mother and brothers will sit down to a holiday meal with Kay and I. Miracles can happen, we already know they can when it does for some of us.
Happy Holidays, everyone!
2 comments:
Before we left, my cousin told me that Julie is an honorary Wheeler (my mother's family name). That is a high honor. Julie did fit right in. I think we may be planning on meeting some of the crew for a concert in Atlanta early next year.
I will always love and cherish my family for being the loving and welcoming people that they are. I know that my mother must have been looking down with a big smile on her face.
Hi
I hope your Ok with this but I wanted to say hi again after some absence, I have decided to try and start blogging once more and we shared a few comments between us on my first blog. If your not mad at me for going underground for 7 months then I would like to share with you again?
Helen x
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