To Honor the Anniversary of my daughter's transition

Excerpt

May 1,1992, which was the last communication Sandi had with the outside world and very likely the last words ever spoken by her to anyone before she succumbed to the chemicals found in her body the next day.

 The threats of violence, the constant barrage of criticism from Gary, not being to able to see her children when promised, her best friend refusing to be responsible for her and the feeling of low self-esteem became too much to bear any longer.  I now believe she hung up the phone after talking to her little sister and said, That's it, no more, I've had it, took enough pills and booze to do the job and fell into a coma, where her employer found her the next afternoon.

 Speaking allegorically, it reminded me of a scene I observed when I was only a boy of seven or eight.  We raised chickens during the depression to provide meat and eggs for the table.  One day while gathering the eggs from the coop, I saw an egg that had been laid that did not have the normal shell covering the embryo.  It only had a membrane.  The other chickens (as they are wont to do) started pecking at what they instinctively knew was a weakness. Chickens will do that if they find a weakness in other chickens.  First they peck at the comb of the weaker chicken....that draws blood.... all the other stronger ones join in.  Of course it is only a matter of time until they kill the weaker victim. The embryo I observed, with only a membrane, instead of a hard shell, had no protection and was soon eliminated from the group.    

In three days she and Gary would have signed the papers finalizing their divorce.

     The rest of the day was the same as any other Monday, i.e., I finished work, had dinner with Fred and some of the men from the meeting I had been attending for over 30 years.  The meeting over, I drove home to my apartment, parked my car in the underground garage, came up to my level to see David’s sister waiting for me.

 Quickly sensing that her manner was not jovial and that this was not some frivolous mission designed to entertain me, I asked, "What's wrong?'  

“Sandi’s dead”

Her words fell on ears that would not believe what they had just heard.