ARKANSAS FAMILY
Cary (son)
Sophia [his mother's partner], she treats me just like a son, you know? It's definitely a different experience to be treated like a son again, after my father was gone. On the weekends, we go fishing. Mom stays home and works on her flowerbeds. It's just the things that remind me of having a father. I guess it's kind of fun for her too because she's never had a son.
Ryan (daughter)
The first time that I met Vickie [her mother's partner], I was like (gasp), there's something about her, there's something about her, and I was only like seven or eight. I was like, there's something about her!
Sophia (mother)
Ryan told me one time, I don't want Vickie for you, I want her for me. Ryan, I think, had an insight about what she needed as she grew older. Things that I had no knowledge of, no way to give her certain things. You know, Vickie and her go shopping and they put on makeup together and they curl their hair and they do all this kind of stuff that I have no idea of how to do. (laughs) You know, at all. I'm definitely the mom in one way, but Vickie is in the other.
Vickie (mother)
We can create an entire world that affirms our being and then we turn on the television set and see a commercial on TV that condemns us to hell. We can drive down the street and pass a marquee at a church and we realize we're getting preached against this Sunday. I mean, you can't hide who you are. Somebody's driving down the street when you walk out to get in the car and there you are, being family. Ah-ha!, we got caught going to the grocery store. "Look, there's that queer family over there!"