My, how things have changed!

The last time I wrote a post I was happily pastoring the Blue Ocean Faith community that I had founded in 2015.

It’s been an interesting several years. In 2017 my 34 year long marriage ended. It had been in trouble for a very long time. It was a relief. I took back my original name, moved back to Clintonville, and started afresh.

In 2018 the bookstore where I had been the assistant manger closed and I found myself among the ranks of the unemployed. After searching for work and realizing that age discrimination is very real I decided to pursue a life long dream and got my real estate license. I was still the pastor of Blue Ocean Faith Columbus and was dealing with aging parents, both mine and my ex’s mom (it’s a long story). It became clear that I could not do everything, so I resigned as pastor of BOFC at the end of the year.

In February of 2019 while setting up for an open house I slipped in some slushy ice. I went on to complete the open house, but by the end of the day I couldn’t put weight on my left leg. There was no break according to the ER, so I was sent to physical therapy. Big mistake. I found out about 18 months later that my hip had, in fact been broken and the PT had displaced the fracture creating a chronic hip injury. That summer I joined my good friend’s real estate team and took on administrative duties for the team. A relief as the injury was impacting my ability to work.

My life took on a rhythm of work and art. I started taking classes at the Columbus Art Center. I was happy, but pretty much alone most of the time. I had started to check out dating apps and had quickly realized that I never wanted to date a man again. And then, the pandemic hit.

While Real Estate was considered an “essential business” and we continued to operate much the same as always (with pandemic protections in place), dating was not and “essential business”. So I remained in the closet. Fast forward to 2021 and the Covid vaccines. Finally we were able to see people socially on a somewhat limited basis and it was time to come out of the closet.

So, Hello, my name is Sue and I’m a lesbian.