His mother turned on him when he came out. His 78-year-old grandmother intervened.
Ronnie Kroell was 15 when his mother caught him kissing his boyfriend. The ensuing argument, the screaming and shouting, woke up his grandmother, who was living with them after a massive heart attack. Ronnie says,
“…she comes out of the bedroom and looks at my mother and says, “Charlene, I’m gonna whip you over the head with this cane if you don’t just love your son the way he is.” This 78-year-old woman coming out and telling her own daughter, “Look, woman, you’re gonna love your son and you’re gonna appreciate him for who he is and what he’s trying to do.”
He and his mother were both stunned. He didn’t expect an older person to be his champion, to be open about diversity and difference. But he realized that her point-of-view was shaped by her life:
“…there are others like my grandmother who just realize that with all the challenging times and difficult times she had in life, she was able to focus on the positive and say, “Look, I’m 78 and I don’t have much longer here. You guys do. You just need to value what you have and not let something like this destroy that relationship.”
Originally published at ImFromDriftwood.com.
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