His mother called

His mother called this evening. Her voice trembled as she introduced herself and said she was calling to find out how Frankie was. I was so excited, and nervous, for him that I forgot all about introducing myself. Probably the fact that I am a bit nervous talking to her played into it. I just told her that he was fine and said I would get him so she could talk to him.

He spoke to her and his sisters for about an hour.

Mostly he was very cheerful.

And yes, right away he told his mother than he was transgendered and he wanted to be a girl. Of course he first asked her to promise not to be shocked or to blame us. He reported later that after he told her she said, "I'm going to take a little breather and let you talk to your sisters."

When he spoke to his first sister he said, "I understand Mom is having trouble with her breathing. Does she have cancer?" He stayed pretty cheerful throughout the phone call. He told everyone about our open kitchen, our brain-damaged (he said "retarded") cat, our dogs, etc.

He tried to reassure his sister that he was "in a real home with a real mom and a real dad." It surprised him that this upset his sister. He then reassured her that no one could replace her or their mother. At one point he referred to Hubby as his dad and then corrected himself, "You know, my third dad. He's my F-Dad." This made him giggle.

I don't think it helped his sister much.

He tried to cheer up his sister. He spoke to her in a Darth Vader voice, "I am Frankie. I am your brother." He told her to stand on her head so her frown would be upside down and then she would be happy. He told her to be happy over and over. "I'm in a real home, with a real mom and dad. Be happy."

He promised his sister he would visit. He said that he couldn't run away to live with them because he would just get caught and locked up. He said when he was 18 he would come to live with them and never leave.