Thank you for sharing your story, Nancy. I'm so sorry to hear about how lonely you were for so long and I understand the feeling of not fitting in, not having your life decisions be socially acceptable, and so on. That is so hard. I grew up in Germany in a tiny little town so everyone knew everyone and while it was very neighborly, it was also gossipy and I always had to be careful to not be an embarrassment to my family, because people would run their mouth all day long. Growing up in the 80s, it was still not acceptable that my German mother married an American and then got divorced. In a town where nothing happened, that was fodder for a long time. There is always going to be walking that line between a close knit community and a gossipy town that ostracizes strangers, foreigners, people who don't comply with current norms, etc. Thank you again for reading and taking the time to comment.