#20 Mr I's Letter

8/10/12

Hey gang,
Please read attached. 
Information you should know.
Aloha nui,

Tony I

*****

St. Michael's Gang

Greetings to all,

Let me first say how overjoyed I am to be invited into this illustrious group and how unusual to find adults still in contact with friends from their 8th grade class. Let me add that I have been debating writing this note and have decided that I have been unfair to you in not informing you of the changes in my life.

When I left Hawaii, we moved to Connecticut where my wife got a job on the first day there. It took me a little longer but I started teaching in Cromwell, a suburb of Hartford. A public school, it was very different from St. Michael's. I left after three years and went to school to become a computer programmer. I did that for many years at two different companies until I got a job offer in San Francisco. I moved to CA with no hesitation at all. Before the move, my wife and I had another child, a daughter, who lives in SF.  She is very close to me and estranged from her mother.  Her mother and I are divorced. People change and we grew apart, very far apart in truth.

My sons are back East, in Connecticut and Kentucky.  Both are married with children - I have 5 grand kids, ranging in age from 19 to 10, 4 girls and 1 boy.  The sons are good men, solid, hard-working and devoted to their families.  I adore both my daughters-in-law. I don't get to see the boys and their families much due to the distance, but we do talk on the phone once a month or so.

I am remarried and in a very strong relationship, now going on 18 years together.  That really is the point of this note.  I am married to another man.  I came out over 25 years ago.  My kids know and have accepted Kim, my partner, fully as part of their lives.  He is a second grandfather and a second father.  In many ways, he is my opposite and helps to balance my idiosyncracies.

I am a very lucky man; I am loved and supported by those around me.  I am aware that not everyone can accept my being gay, and that is a choice only they can make and I cannot control.  If the gang wishes to bar me from its membership, I will understand.  I will personally mourn the decision, but I will understand.

To all of you, I wish the very best; may your lives continue to give you all the joys you deserve.

Affectionately,

Tony I