Cousin John boiled a cat. When we were kids, Dad kept his barbershop open Friday nights, so Mom would take us to visit her sisters. Friday nights were times we got to play with cousins. 

We visited Aunt Arlene one Friday, and immediately upon entering the house the odor was off-putting. On the stove was a soup pot simmering away. Mom politely asked what Auntie was cooking. She said, “A cat, but it’s not for dinner.” 

Cousin John found a dead cat in the hay barn and wanted to assemble the bones like he saw in dinosaur museums. John is a fascinating person. He was very smart and did amazing projects. Science is his love. When he was a still a young teen, he built a stone garden for his mother and collected wild plants from the woods to create a woodland flower-scape. He is an expert mushroom hunter. He has a talent for orchids. John is a fascinating person.

Aunt Arlene was boiling the flesh off the cat bones to clean them for assembly. A couple of weeks later we visited again and John had constructed the cat bones in a hissing position. John later went to medical school and is now a doctor. 

When John came out, Mom took it in stride. He was her favorite nephew, and that he was gay never changed her love for him or her delight in his interests and projects. She hugged him that day, as she did every time we visited. 

Do you have a relative who is gay? Has your love for them changed when they came out?

Pastor Chris