Several years ago, I was pretty well known nationwide and in a few instances, worldwide in the transgender community. Oh not because I was an activist or anything. I was a staff member of one of the largest transgender conferences in the world and I dealt with newcomers to the conference. It was my job to help make sure they had a good time and if they needed assistance, they had a Big Brother or Sister to guide them. Then my mother started developing dementia and I put everything on hold to become her caregiver. For over eight years, I did nothing but care for her and my disabled brother. In eight years, I had basically about two or maybe as much as three weeks of time off. Total! Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining because I feel good that I kept her out off a nursing home for that time. After my brother and my mom passed away, I just more or less decompressed for a couple of years. However during all those years, I pretty much lost contact with everyone I had known in the community except for a couple of people.
Several years ago I established a Facebook account but I did very little with it up until November when I started posting on it regularly. One thing it has helped me do is establish contact with a lot of the people I knew back then. People who were really close friends until I more or less disappeared on them. And that's allowed me to find some e-mail addresses of other people who aren't on FB. I was wondering if any of them would even remember me and I've been surprised. So many of them have expressed happiness at reconnecting with me. I also reconnected with someone who was one of my newcomers quite a few years ago and is now one of the best known transgender advocates in the country. I'm very proud of her and I guess I kind of know how a proud mom feels when one of her kids becomes someone famous.
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