A small happy memory for me. When I was about 5 I had very long, thick eyelashes framing bright blue eyes. One day when I was visiting her, my grandmother commented on them and told me “Your eyes are too pretty for a boy. You should have been a girl!”

She was more right than she knew.

But not more right than she ever knew. When I was 25 I finally came out to her. I was terrified, but I was starting my transition and wouldn’t be able to hide it any more. I told her “I want to be a girl”. She looked at me and simply said “I know.” She had figured it out on her own, but gave me time to work through my feelings and come to her about it, and she accepted me.

Thank you, Grandmother, for being there and loving me for who I really am.