Like more people, Simon came out to his family in stages: first his siblings, later his mother, and, about two or three years ago, his father.
His brother and sister are totally fine with us. I've been over to houses for dinners and weekends and the occasional New Year's Eve party. His mother is just "OK" with his being gay, and doesn't know what to do with me. Every time I'm at their house, she's very nice to me and, like any Jewish mother, feeds me until I can't walk anymore. And kudos to her, because it took her a long time to get even that far. And Simon's father...well, Simon's father doesn't quite know what to do with the "gay" thing, nevermind me. Needless to say, I've never met him.
Last Friday was no different. Before Simon's father got home from work, we went over to his parents' house. It was one of his niece's 6th birthday today, and they were having a little party for her. Upon entering, his niece (she of the birthday) proceeds to explain in detail her new birthday outfit, and how the sleeves of the sweater don't stay up when she puts her arms over her head. I am then literally almost bowled-over by his 5-year-old nephew, who ran out of a back bedroom and latched onto my leg (he likes me because I play with him a lot, mainly because I can't keep up with adult Hebrew but kid Hebrew is do-able). Then his other niece tottled out of the bedroom to see what the commotion was all about, saw me and Simon, giggled, and ran back into the bedroom. She just turned four.
New this week, though, was Simon's grandmother, who I had never met. Simon's mother's family is from Morocco, and came to Israel when Simon's mother was a teenager. Simon's grandmother is getting up there in age, and both her hearing and her mind are starting to go a bit. Because of this, she's forgotten much of her Hebrew, so all conversation with her has to be in loud, simple Hebrew or Arabic. Between my intermediate Hebrew and strong accent and her mixing of Arabic and Hebrew and strong accent, we didn't do much conversing. Even Simon shouting "THIS IS BEN" in Arabic took three or four tries before we're pretty sure she got it.
And so the afternoon went. After stuffing ourselves on schnitzel, peppers with spaghetti, and that spicy Moroccan tomato salad I can never remember the name of (I'm pretty sure it starts with an "m"), much of the rest of the time was spent playing Dora The Explorer matching games, freeze tag, and then putting a Yug-E-Oh puzzle together. And then I had to hang up a string of balloons because I was the only person in the house tall enough to reach the ceiling lamp*. Oh, and I almost fell off the chair and crushed Simon's grandmother. I don't think she noticed.
Around dinnertime we had some cake and coffee (oddly enough while watching Joan River's Fashion Police: Golden Globes Edition), and then Simon took me home in his parents' car on the way to going to fetch his father at work, which is how we usually run things when I come on Fridays. And then I came home to catch up on "Nikita" and Simon went back to have dinner with his family.
It's a bit hard for me, since I don't have any family here and only a limited group of friends in Tel Aviv. I feel like I should go out and meet people, but that's so much easier said than done.
*For reference, I'm 5'11"/1.80 metres.
