Kate and Linda Rohr sit down for breakfast on Valentine’s Day at their home in Fort Bragg, Calif. Later that week, Kate would have her gender-affirmation surgery. (Amy Ellis Nutt / Washington Post)
For months, Bill Rohr kept three clocks running on his iPad. One counted down the days to his retirement as a surgeon: Dec. 31, 2015. Another counted up the days since he and his wife, Linda, married: June 15, 1968.
The third clock, the most recent addition and the one that most occupied Rohr’s thoughts, showed the days until his Feb. 17, 2016, surgery at Mills-Peninsula Medical Center south of San Francisco.
At age 70, Bill would become Kate.
It was an operation he’d long ago dismissed as unattainable – but one Linda said he deserved to have. She’d traveled the arc of his life, supportive even after his bombshell confession.
It’s a shame that she had to wait so long.
I’m so glad that her family were all so supportive.
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It is, but at the same time, I am so glad she was finally able to realize herself, and to have her family all the way with her. It’s a good story in the midst of all the hate and bigotry.
cicely (#1) --
I didn’t start until a year ago, in my late 40s. Trust me, it’s always better, not “better late than never”.
Left0ver1under:
That was definitely the cheer filled sense you got from Kate Rohr. While it is much easier now, it’s still no simple thing for a person to transition, there’s a long way to go yet.
Some years ago, I watched a documentary about Kate’s surgeon, Marci Bowers. She’s a pioneer of vaginal surgery, in both transition surgery and restoring victims of FGM, as well as being a trans woman herself.