Tranford Tales - Sophie

Liz actually built up the dressmaking business online, till she could go first part-time and then full-time. Which actually left her some time to socialize with the lovely people of Tranford. Seeing how happy some well-tailored and comfortable clothes could make a woman was a reward for both of us, but our friends practically forced her to charge a proper rate.

I stopped having a career, and was happy in my job. I even ran a weekly surgery of a couple of hours in Tranford as an outreach from the medical practice, for which I was paid. Acting as a nurse practitioner, and referring on anyone who needed more serious medical diagnosis or medication. Often it was more reassurance than anything, for people dealing with hormones and surgery, and their partners.

More time socializing as a female was better than money.

There were many more people in the new development. Some of the transwomen had surgery so that they looked as well as acted really feminine. They really had become women. I decided it wasn't important enough to me. There were others who were not transgender at all, just men who liked dressing female -- no hormones, no surgery, just happy in a society which allowed and even appreciated it. I was somewhere in between, and I think that helped those who were struggling. Some were truly female, but their big male bodies made it hard to disguise the fact.

In Tranford men and women were who they said they were. As we got larger, we had even more variety, including some who changed between.

And yes, there were the occasions when a young person came to lodge with us. We are glad to have had the occasional male gender, since we never had a son. Sometimes they stayed on in Tranford, sometimes they overcame whatever rift they had with their families, and went back.

That gives us the greatest satisfaction of all.