Taking pride

Life always throws curve balls at us. I figured it out a long time ago. It isn’t because some divine being thinks we can handle an issue or problem or that we need to be reminded of our frailties. It’s just life. Good or bad happens to everyone.

Three days after we arrived in Vancouver, our granddaughter broker her leg in the playground at recess. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t a big deal. In the grand scheme of things for an awkward eight-year-old, it’s a different scheme of things. From her little piggies to the top of her leg, she now sports a bright pink cast. Less than twenty-four hours passed and she, mostly, had learned the intricacies of getting around with crutches. Little kids, it seems, don’t really know very much about curve balls. It’s a broken leg with a bright pink cast upon which names can be signed, little pictures drawn and wishes sent. As far as she’s concerned, it’s a bright pink fibreglass medium for creative expression. The adults —her mom, her dad and her grandparents— tried to keep it simple. We tried not to throw curve balls at her about broken bones and what happens after the cast comes off or how summer camp will look from the sidelines.

Our time in Vancouver came to an end and LOML and I said our goodbyes to the VANkids. Now we are at CFB Shilo for the second leg of our journey. Our youngest daughter and her wife live the military life here. On the drive from the Brandon airport to Shilo Base, our daughter rumbled through a list of things we were going to do on our vacation visit. She pitched her itinerary for us as we drove along. COM (child of mine) hesitantly suggested we could attend a Pride Parade in Brandon. I might have snickered at the mention and she may have taken it as a curve ball from her mother, of all people. I offered that I didn’t really think of Brandon as a city that would celebrate Pride. The second curve ball. I’m such a bad mom.

COM offered that it was, in fact, isolated places like Brandon and CFBs where Pride events are needed. She told us that, in spite of what we have read, being a gay woman in the armed forces is still a big issue for lots of people. Additionally, being a gay woman in a rural city, like Brandon, is a big deal. As difficult as it must be to be LGBT in any community, it is doubly so in a small, isolated community.

And so, to Brandon’s second annual Pride event went LOML and I with our daughter and her wife. I was humbled by the outpouring of attention LOML and I received as the parents of a lesbian woman. I was blown away by the number of people who showed up for the parade and the festival in the park. I had the great good fortune to speak with one of the organizers of the event. Kim was excited about the second year of Brandon Pride. However, this year the City of Brandon decided to send two municipal police officers to the event, as peacekeepers. Apparently, there had been a demonstration at City Hall the day earlier in the week. A few of the local citizens felt that Pride wasn’t the kind of event a city like Brandon needed to sanction. While the police presence should have made me feel comfortable, I felt a little threatened. Oh those curve balls will do that to a person.

A Pride event in the County? I certainly think it’s time to be open and welcoming to everyone.

theresa@wellingtontimes.ca