As I sit relaxing with my glass of Baileys I think it’s time to reflect upon the first half of my 2018 trip. The functions are over and the job now is to catch up with as many friends and family as possible before I head back to Australia on the 25th May.
The main reason for my trip was to attend the wedding of my stepdaughter Nikki and her fiancé Jon, it was the most amazing day I have had in a long time, even the weather was kind to us. The bride looked truly spectacular and I couldn’t help but think of the two and a half year old little girl who curled up on my lap on Christmas Day 1990, thumb firmly entrenched in her mouth and how she captured my heart. It was a lovely day from start to finish and I felt very honoured to be part of it and even more honoured to be able to speak as ex step father now step mother as it were.
Sadly just two days before the wedding I was attending the funeral of my best friend and soulmate Denise’s mum in Wales. Doreen and I made a connection on her very first visit to Australia after Denise and I got together in 2013. For some reason we just clicked, she made fun of the fact I was from Yorkshire and I made fun of her for living in Wales. We had so many good trips and so many laughs over the next few years which will remain in my memories for ever. A truly outstanding lady who had no problems getting to grips with my transition unlike some closer to me who should really just be happy for me instead of having a problem accepting the fact that I am now Stephanie and very proud of what I have accomplished over the last 18 months. Denise did an amazing job of organising the funeral in a way that made it a true celebration of Doreen’s life and her eulogy was outstanding. I played a very small part by reading a poem but felt very honoured to do it.
Two days prior to the funeral we were in Brighton seeing a transgender surgeon. I needed to know whether he thought I needed further surgery, on what timescale if I did and his views on several other issues. He was lovely with me, he listened to my story, made me cry and after examining me, treated some granulation tissue with silver nitrate which also came close to making me cry but the meeting I feel was very beneficial and if the need for further surgery arises then he would be high on the list of people to do it. He classed it as a 50/50 chance so there is a large possibility that I will see him again.
So now to the task of seeing as many people as possible before I go back home. There will be lots who I don’t get to see and I hope they will understand. If I spend the rest of my time here chasing around the country visiting people it will not be a holiday for me and I will return home exhausted and probably go backwards in terms of my healing so I hope I don’t disappoint too many people. I have made a good start and have had some memorable meetings with people up to now including my beautiful friends Stephen and Yvonne who I saw yesterday. They have been so supportive of me and when I arrived yesterday Yvonne’s greeting was priceless, she took one look at me and said “just look at you, how could you ever have been a boy?” It simply doesn’t get any better than that! Then today I caught up with a lady I haven’t seen for over 40 years, since we were at school together. We met at Bainton and spent over three very enjoyable hours talking about old times, common friends and my story. Wendy I’m sorry I made you cry when I told my story, I still fill up with tears when I tell it but managed to keep them back today. It was a wonderful three hours and would have loved it to be longer but hopefully we will get you out to Australia at some point in the not too distant future.
This trip I hope to catch up with a number of people who I haven’t seen for many years and today was a good start. I am so lucky to have as many positive friends that so far outweighs the odd negative one and I will continue to seek out people from my past who I would love to re connect with, hopefully they are of the same mind, time I guess will tell!