interfered with each other. Mother could support herself, so that was one load off my mind. Now, however, I had to tell her about this thing, because I knew I couldn't suppress it for long. I told her I was going to a party as a girl, and would like to dress for her, to get her opinion. She said she would like to see me. I dressed carefully, then came out for her inspection. Mother was quite taken aback, what she saw was better than she had expected. (This is something to think about when you tell someone about TV. Either dress, or have pictures to show them at the time. Otherwise, they can only visualize a man in a dress, and this may not be very pleasing to them.) We sat and talked for awhile, and then she called a neighbor in! Mother introduced me as a friend, and it was a little while, before the neighbor caught on, when she did, she thought it was great. After our friend left, Mother and I talked a little more. She thought I looked all right, but wondered why I would buy a wig for just one party. It was then that I told her a little of what dressing meant to me.

I gave her Virginia's pamphlet to read while I changed back. After she read the pamphlet, we talked it through, and I told her I would have to dress once in awhile. I said that if she couldn't go along with it, we would have to go our separate ways. I guess Mother loved me, and felt I could do no wrong, because she said that she could see nothing wrong in what I wanted to do. We decided that we would stay together, and try to work things out. Things did work out, and it wasn't long before we were going out together every place as mother and daughter. Mother got to the point where she enjoyed being with her new daughter, but it was hard for her to get used to calling me by my femme name. She would get a chuckle out of it when a waitress would ask what we two ladies were having for lunch. Mother accepted me to the point of going to FPE meetings with me, where she enjoyed the other TVs and their GGs. One thing I did, was to not dress unless we were going out for the day, I believe this was a contribution to her acceptance of me.

Mother and I had a few happy years together before she died 41⁄2 years ago. Now I was really alone, by this is meant, no family, no one depending on me, I was, so to speak, "free." That was the first time that I seriously thought about living full time. You might think that all of the things I had done in the past had been done with this thought in mind, but such was not the case. Though, like many, I dreamed for years about living full time as a woman, I could see no possibility of it happening to me, of all people. But it did.

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