George Costanza had his summer of “George” on “Seinfeld. Last summer was the Summer of

Change for me. I’m very grateful though about three things:  my parents did a good job of preparing me for times like these; I am surrounded by people who love and care for me and did a lot to make me feel good even in the darkest moments over the last sixteen months; and most importantly, I’m grateful to God for taking care of all of us during those scary, difficult times.

Here’s what happened. What follows is the truth, unabridged. Others have written about this. The following is exactly what happened.

On May 5, 2006, my father died. We found out in April that he had lung cancer via CT Scan, but we didn’t have time enough to find out what type it was or how to treat it. He went downhill very quickly, refusing to eat in the last week or two. We had some terrific hospice care in the last two weeks and he died in his sleep the evening of the 5th, three days after his birthday.

We were fortunate in that we were able to have his brother, my uncle Ray here as well as my sister, Dail, who came in from DC. Her kids flew in for the memorial service; as a result we had a house full of people in and out for about about a week. I talked to people I didn’t know were relatives. All of whom were touched by my dad in one way or another: one was a woman whom he helped at one of his friend’s apartment buildings; another was someone who he talked to when he bought gas; a third was a neighbor I didn’t think he knew; and finally was the kid on the block for whom he built a jump ramp for his bike who, when I was at the house after the memorial service asked where “Mr. Kenny” was. He was a very special man and I’m proud to call him my dad.

After he died, we started planning the memorial service; daunting stuff to be sure.

That all went well, I think. I have Deliberative as a Strengths, so making decisions in pressure-filled situations is sometimes difficult for me. Things took a difficult turn when one of my friends outed me during the service. Three of my four supervisors were in attendance and since it’s not possible for anyone to be in a same-sex relationship and maintain a position in my area, I was asked to leave my position. Somewhere in the middle of the wrangling and maneuvering, I was offered another job with my current employer, CDC. I love it there and the people are very caring and responsive to student need. Through it all many of my colleagues on campus were supportive and understood my situation and were sympathetic concerning my plight.

I refuse to allow myself to be a victim through all this. Not at all. My faith remains strong and my friends have gathered around me to make sure I’m doing well during this time.