Publish in Gay & Grey Montreal newsletter – December 2022
In July 2019, I was invited to be part of the team who would assemble my son’s Ikea kitchen. You know, the kind of kitchen that comes in 169 boxes.
To be part of the team you were asked: Ikea’s furniture has no secret for you anymore; you are good at reading their plans; and you can screw at the speed of light. And on those criteria, I was selected. And the fact that my son and I have always been the most handy of our family.
At one point, on all fours concentrating on the cabinet that was invested in me, I was suddenly interrupted by the oldest of my 3 granddaughters.
“Grandmaman, how come you are doing construction, while grandmaman C. is just preparing food, taking care of us the children, and you’re not?”
“Because grandmaman is a man and a woman. And now as a man, I am helping with the construction.”
“That’s not possible?”
“Why not! Regarde-moi! bien”
So that’s what she did for the rest of the day. Peeking at what I was doing, once, twice, a third and a fourth time, being driven by the burning curiosity of her seven year old mind which couldn’t wait to know…
“And now grandmaman are you a man or a woman?”
. . .
To read my identity as a non-binary person/being, here’s the link
mari.e cornellier 