Member-only story
The Accidental Advocate
For Camille, and for parents of LGBTQ children
Note: This personal essay was first published in Keeping It Under Wraps, an Anthology edited by Louise Bryant, Tracy Hope and Alnaaze Nathoo (2021)
Another massage session with Li Hua is over. I feel relaxed, oxygenated, content. I’ve been coming here for years now. Pear blossom is the meaning of her name. This fine, middle-aged woman has a firm touch; her hands offer the right pressure. Chinese, as she is, I believe her to be the gifted recipient of a millennium of knowledge. Skills passed down generation to generation. There is such empathy in her touch, such care and generosity.
“Ça va Camille?” She interrupts my reverie, asking me about my eldest daughter, adding, “Tulour pa copa?”
Li Hua arrived in Geneva, Switzerland, close to 10 years ago, but her French is still hard to decipher. There are plenty of French phonemes that the Chinese language doesn’t have and I presume, vice versa. I always struggle to understand her.
“Camille is fine,” I say as I get up from the massage bed. “She visited recently, when the airports reopened in the UK.”
“Toulu Londo?”
“Yes, she is still living and working in London. She’s been there for five years now.”
