“There was my Mum and Dad and two brothers. Nothing gets done in my family without it being a conference. It was everybody in one go…everyone say around the kitchen table…everyone was staring at me thinking ‘Oh God, what has she done this time?’. I just went ‘I’m Gay’ and my dad went ‘well, yeah?’ and my Mum said “Well, we did wonder when you were going to tell us. I blame Kylie”.
When I was about 8 I remember seeing Kylie in her overalls kissing Jason Donovan through the window and I thought “wow, she’s cool”. As Mum said, it was the sweatshirt that did it. Every Friday when we did the shopping and we went through the market I always badgered my Mum to buy me a sweatshirt with Kylie on it – I wanted the one with all the hair, you know, the hat…I loved that picture. I waited for months and then, one christmas, I got one but when I unwrapped it it had Kylie and Jason on it. Mum went out and when she came back I’d cut Jason out of the sweatshirt. I just wore a black T Shirt underneath…so they totally blame Kylie.’
I don’t know how my Grandma knew but I remember her being alright. I remember saying to her ‘how come you’re alright?’. She nodded downwards and passed me a ring. It said engraved in the inside ‘21, to Jane from Enid with love’. She didn’t really tell me anything but I think it was from a girl in the land army.”