Hello from Sheryl

I have followed Vanessa's blog for a few years and I am delighted that she has invited us all to be participants in her site.

I am 62 years old, now retired and I knew I was different from a very young age.  My earliest memory is at about 6 or 7, playing dress-ups with my sisters and wanting to play the mother, then at about 12, I pinched one of my mother's padded bras from the washing basket to get the curves that the other girls my age were developing.

I dressed through my teens while also chasing girls and not understanding if I wanted to be with them or be one of them.  I eventually found the love of my life and planned to marry, at which time I thought I would give up my hobby.  One week before the wedding, my fiancee decided to pay a surprise visit and discovered me in bed wearing a bra and panties.  Both of us having previously read a book on 'Sex Change and Dress deviation' (which disclosed to me that I was not the only cross dresser in the world) and also experimented with me wearing her bra to bed meant she was not totally shocked with my appearance.

To my delight she rejected my suggestion of cancelling the wedding and I entered matrimony with my collection of feminine attire intact and an accepting wife who I have now treasured for forty years.

My dressing continued in private throughout our marriage but tended to become more intense as I approached middle age. By the time our children had grown and left home, I had discovered that there were many cross dresser  and transgender groups on the internet and my wife suggested that I contact other people like me so that I could socialise with them and find out more about myself.

Within a few months I had found a friend who lived nearby and who encouraged me to make my debut as Sheryl in public.  A drive to Melbourne (100 miles), a meeting of a cross dressing group at a well known Gay bar and drive home.  The drive was uneventful, I parked the car and we walked into the bar to meet the girls.  Within 5 minutes I felt like I was in heaven.  I had found a place where Sheryl was welcomed as a woman and I felt comfortable like never before.

Within a few months I had made other friends and met other groups and ventured out to other venues and in daytime to shopping malls, thrift shops and other places, I found there was no limit to where I could go as Sheryl.  I am free to be me.

I also realised that I am not only a cross dresser but that I am transgender.

I have since been diagnosed with Gender Dysphoria and soon hope to begin HRT to become more feminine in my appearance.  GRS is not on my radar at this time as my wife has told me that she could not live in a lesbian relationship and I do not want to lose the person I love most.

I will be happy with whatever the hormones will do for me.  Having my own breasts to fill my bra would be lovely.

I am looking forward meeting many more of the girls here, I think they are all friends, I just haven't met them all yet.