Most people ask us, as people ask of couples who have found each other despite bad odds, how did you two meet? Blind date, we always respond in unison. This gets a laugh or a loud what? and we pause, because here our two memories diverge. Remembering before we were a we is not easy after two decades through life’s bumps and bends, those close calls and those definitive calls too.

Twenty years ago. I hadn’t come out. She hadn’t either. Bars were smoky and just about the only place for gals like us to meet. Somehow we were lucky enough to avoid that thanks to the auspicious suggestion of a mutual friend. Immediately, we affixed like two clouds during a summer storm and ran the sky with booming thunder and flashing lightening. Six months later she packed up her place and moved into mine. Combined we were five, two moms and three kids, with cats, a dog, various fish, and another kid during the summers (a longer story). Old walls came down. New walls were built. Beds got shuffled. A family was born anew.  Continue reading →