I always thought my neighbor was a couple with his girlfriend, it turns out he's a couple with his Papaw.

It's a reasonably sad story, but i think it's an interesting one. As I was walking down the street while doing some errands, I saw my neighbor outside. He was a quiet, grey-bearded man that I saw a lot from afar. He would often sit with a man that looked much older than him. The older man was even greyer, and often had a walking stick. We would often exchange pleasantries when we saw each other, but not much else.<br><br>I assumed he was a couple who had an elderly family member living with them. Maybe his Dad? His father in law? His neighbor? I didn't know. I never really had a need to talk to him about it.<br><br>I have recently moved to a new house, I don't see him often anymore. I always thought about him. He was a reasonably harmless guy. One day, I saw him from afar with another gay man that I know. I have chatted to this other gay man before, so I thought I'd go over and say hi. I saw that he was chatting to my neighbor, but my neighbor was now crying.<br><br>He said that he's upset because his long term partner, the elderly man I saw him with, had recently passed. I said my condolences. My neighbor continued to explain that they met in 1987. They were together for thirty five years.<br><br>He said that they were lucky in a way. They lived in a country with very progressive gay laws, so they were able to be child free without much scrutiny. Even though they were in an open relationship, they didn't mark each other as spouses because they were told that it would mark them as gay, and they would lose their jobs.<br><br>In the obituary, he marked himself as the deceased's spouse. He said that the deceased's family were okay with it. My other gay acquaintance had known them both for a long time. He said that he was the only person outside of my neighbor and his husband who knew that he was gay at that time.<br><br>I'm so happy that they got to share their love together. I'm sad that I didn't get to see them share it more. I'm glad that I got to hear their story.