Laura Hall discovered her father’s homosexuality while he was still married to her mother. A union of more than sixty years that she truly understood the day her mother died.
Love is multiple and infinite. It can take different forms and surprise us. This is what Laura Hall understood through the exceptional story of her parents which she told Huffington Post. When she was 20, she discovered that her father was actually gay. Contrary to all expectations, he remained married to his mother for almost 65 years.
If this relationship questioned her a lot during her life, she ended up understanding that the love that united them was stronger than anything, even though it was unconventional. She found out the day her mother died.
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A shocking discovery
In her account, Laura Hall explains that her parents were married in 1942. It was not until several years later that Laura’s mother discovered thehomosexuality from her husband when her daughter was 6 years old. One fine day, she came across photos of her husband with other men. Panicked, she called the girl’s father at work. He returned home as quickly as possible. When he finally understood what had happened, he offered to leave the family home immediately and disappear completely while continuing to take care of the family financially. Finally, still in love, Laura’s mother asked her husband to stay. That’s what he did forever.
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For many years, Laura felt very sad for her parents thinking they had resigned themselves to staying together. Nevertheless, her mother assured her that she had indeed stayed out of love. So she observed this unconditional relationship where her mother supported her father when he created the first LGBT section of the local library and many other adventures. But it was really on the day her mother died that she realized how strong this love was.
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“I wondered if I had it all wrong”
It was in 2006 that Laura’s mother died. The night before she passed away, she was unconscious in bed while her father was in the kitchen entertaining relatives. At her mother’s bedside, she wondered if he was going to let these last moments slip away and not say goodbye. “I wondered if I had their relationship all wrong”, writes the American.
But a few moments later, his father went to his wife’s bedside. “I’m so happy you said ‘yes’“, he said. To his great surprise, the one whose life he had shared, unconscious for 24 hours, replied: “If I had to do it again, I would do the same thing.” Words that terribly relieved Laura, who was always afraid that her parents had regretted having spent their lives together.
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An exceptional relationship
Two years after the death of her mother, Laura had to say goodbye to her father. Following this, she decided to delve into her relationship with him. She even wrote a book on the subject called Affliction: Growing Up With a Closeted Gay Dad which was published in 2021. During this process, she understood that although some might judge her parents’ marriage, they were still two people who shared unconditional love under imperfect circumstances.
His mother and father did the best they could in the society they lived in at the time. And that’s what she decided to remember: “In my opinion, The important thing is that love comes in many forms and the life of my parents, imperfect and unfair as it was, was filled with love and thanks to them, mine too”.
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Passionate about issues of feminism and society, Allison puts her pen to work on current affairs for Aufeminin. It covers a wide range of themes to provide you with…