“My name is Eliese. I’m seventy six years old and trans. I emigrated to Australia from the UK by myself when I was nineteen. I had lived my entire childhood and adolescence isolated, with the feeling that I belonged nowhere, a feeling that continued unabated. Many years later I returned to the UK to be close to my mother who was in failing health, my father having died.
I eventually had an emotional breakdown and after a lot of therapy confronted my demons and made the decision to transition. My mother supported me, but on the evening of her funeral my family disowned me. On completion of my transition I came home to Australia and met and fell in love with my first partner with whom I stayed until cancer took her in 2003.
After a few more years of solitary living a friend told me about ACON and so I went with her to meet Russ Gluyas and hear all about the Love Club that was then meeting weekly online. It was fun and some of us met more regularly online and formed a Book Club and a Movie Club and Russ organised a whole lot of other interesting events. Through all of this I formed a deep friendship with a wonderful woman with whom I fell in love and who became my second partner until cancer took her in 2023. ACON changed my life and totally turned it around, for which I’ll be forever grateful.”
