(x)This is NOT about the evils of straight, white, men, BUT, it is about the reality of one gay man.

[westerebus]

22. First I'm rec'ing this OP.

Second I'm sending you and your future spouse my very best wishes.

Third this SWM is glad to know you and to hear your voice.

My Irish grandmother on my father's side, Betty worked as a switchboard operator for a hotel. My paternal grandfather died at age 40. Betty worked two jobs to raise her two sons.

The man she called her best friend was Bob, a gay man.

My high school was not that far from the hotel. Once a week I'd stop by to see Nana.

Bob would always order me a drink from the bar, a coke in a rocks glass with ice. It's what as the concierge, he did for the hotel guests.

That's the kind of man he was.

I never got to met my maternal grandmother or grandfather. Her maiden name on my mother's birth certificate is marked unknown. She died when my mother was eight.

Her father adopted out her and her sister to different families. It was the depression and he was a poor Jew. The family she grew up in were German Lutheran. Her maiden name is theirs on all official records.

Her grandparents left Russia via Poland where they were baptized in order to get passports into this country. The pogroms were the reason they left Russia.

My mother and her sister were reunited when I was fourteen. I had an aunt and cousins I'd never seen.

I can not see what the world looks like through your eyes.

My wish for you and yours is that it be a better one.