She's Got Medals

The old lady sat at my office desk and sobbed. Her partner had died.

Her poorly applied make-up ran down her face. I gave her a clean handkerchief as she sobbed and placed my hand on her's as she explained that they had first met on board a ship in 1944, he was a sailor and she was a marine. Understandably they kept their illegal affair secret. She was unmarried, but he had a young wife and child that he returned to after the War. She stayed in the forces a little longer, but they stayed in touch and after he got divorced in the early 1970's they lived together, moving around until they lived in Lincolnshire in the 1990's.

Now her partner had died, and because they were not married his family had claimed his body and was refusing to let her attend his funeral, or even tell him where the funeral was and where he would be buried or cremated.

If you haven't guessed, she was trans-sexual. Life was hard for her. Being herself was hard. She looked odd and suffered comments from others in day to day life. It was awkward for some, including me. Occasionally a nervous colleague would call her "sir" to be corrected "its madam". Other customers would pass comment after she left out of ignorance, meanness or fear.

Several days later she came back into my office with a small case and asked, "Did you believe me?"

"Yes", I replied, "Why wouldn't I?"

"Because most people don't believe I am a woman and have these." She opened the case and showed me four medals in a row inside the case. I know little about medals, but believe one was the Military Medal.