Jesse McGleughlin (JM) and Sue Hyde (SH)
JM: What do you think the differences are in the way you grew up and in the way I grew up?
SH: Hmmm, well, um, I grew up in one of those very typical families, with a mom and a dad and there were seven kids. We lived in a small town in rural Illinois. For me, what was, uh, very difficult and painful at times was to know that I was growing up with feelings about girls that no one else that I knew at that time had. So it caused me, I think, to be a little bit alienated from my parents because I didn’t know how to tell them. And when I finally did tell my mother, I was 19 years old.
JM: Wow.
SH: And you know what she said to me?
JM: Hmmm.
SH: She said, ”What did we do wrong?”
JM: I think if she knew you now, though, she’d be really proud ’cause you would have changed your mind too.
SH: (Sniffs) Well, I want to tell you how I did change her mind. My mom got very sick when I was in my twenties. The week that she died, my partner and I went to my parents’ house to spend the week there, because we knew that my mom was gonna die soon. And on the night before she died, it was me and my partner who were up with her. She was sleeping a lot, you know, her body was shutting down. But she would become aware sometimes and speak to whomever was sitting there in a very present way. She woke up that nigh when we were sitting with her and she took my hand and my partner’s hand and put them here together on her chest and she said, ”You two be happy.” And then she died the next day. And it was really the first time she had ever blessed my relationship. I don’t want you ever, ever to wait that long to hear that from me. I want you to know that I want you to be happy.
JM: Mom, you know I will.
SH: I love you, I’m very proud of you.
JM: Love you too.
