Dear Friend,
I can't remember your name. I can't even remember who you are. All I remember is that once upon a time we had a little chat, and you said something that turned out to be mistaken. So by way of informing you of your mistake (which I'm sure you would want me to do), I'm posting this on this forum in the hope that you might see it.
You might recall the time a couple of years ago when I was desperate to get out of the closet, to start living as myself full-time. One of my main worries was my landlord. We share a house: he has the downstairs and I have the upstairs. And since we use the same entrance, there was no way I could even think about sneaking around on him. I was going to have to come clean to him if I wanted to come out.
I was seriously worried about that. He's a farmer and a retired policeman, and he simply didn't strike me as the type who would be terribly excited about this sort of thing. I was faced with the possibility of being tossed out of my home and having to look for somewhere else to live.
But you insisted that "You never know. People can surprise you." And I'll grant you that you were right about that part. But then you went on to say, "He might even start seeing you as 'the girl upstairs'." And I had to roar with laughter at that idea.
Yes, you were right about the first part. He certainly did surprise me. He turned out to be perfectly accepting and supportive. The fact is that when I came out to him, I'd been in the house for almost eight years, and we'd always got along fine. We're both quiet people, never stepped on the other's toes. I kept the rent paid up and never caused any trouble, so I did have some faint hope that he might be OK with things.
So he turned out to be. I sat down with him one day and explained what I was planning to do. There's no doubt it came as quite a surprise to him, but he thought about it for a minute and said, "OK."
True, he chuckled a bit the first time he saw me in my new persona. But it wasn't really out of amusement. More out of amazement. And true, he did call me by my old name a few times at first. But he caught on soon enough and never made a mistake after that. And he's continued to do the little things for me, like give me a lift on occasion when it was needed since I don't have a car myself. In other words, to my astonishment, he took my great transformation in his stride, life has gone on, all's right with the world.
And then today: I heard a knock on the door and figured it would be the man from the supermarket delivering my groceries. So I immediately headed down the stairs. But he'd heard the knock as well, and had got to the door just ahead of me. But when he saw the man, he realized it was a delivery for me, so he said, "The lady's just here now." And he left it to me.
So I just wanted to point out your mistake to you: he doesn't see me as "the girl upstairs". He sees me as "the lady upstairs." So there. Just thought you'd want to know.
Hope you're doing well these days.
Your friend,
Foxglove
