The boys

My mother has an antique shop in a nice neighborhood in a town near where she lives. The street that it is on is a little community of quirky shops and artisans. You can get anything from your nails and hair done, to original art - with ice cream, tapas and wine, good quality souvenirs, hand made jewelry, or a tarot card reading thrown in. Through this community my mother met the men she calls "the boys".

The boys consist of three men, probably in their late 50s or early 60s, that live together - Wade, Bobby and Gill. Wade and Bobby are a couple. Unfortunately, Gill lost his partner and I think he is single. I'm not sure how they ended up living together, or how they own 2 pieces of property, but they rent the house they don't live in to my mother. That is where she currently lives.

When I first heard about this, it blew my mind. My mother has gay men for friends? And Gill is a psychic that she lets read tarot cards for her? And she actually believes in it? Who are you and what did you do with my closed minded, judgemental, kinda prejudiced mother? And she laughs when she tells me how vulgar Gill is, she won't repeat anything he has said, but she thinks he's funny.

But more than that, these guys take care of her as best they can. Anything that she needs, if they are able to help in any way, they will, and they do. They are good guys.

On our last night in Florida, my mother had the boys over for dinner, a belated birthday dinner for Bobby. They were extremely nice, but Gill stole the show. My mother had asked him in advance to try to hold back because of my son. I told him to let loose, I knew my son would enjoy it as much as I would, and I was right. This guy is funny. The kind of funny that he doesn't care if anyone is laughing along with him. He lets out this infectious guffaw from deep in the back of his throat that you can't help but laugh along, "Hunh-HAAAA!".

The highlights of the evening:

Apparently the street the shops are on was going to be closed down for a Red Hat Society Parade. In order to march in the parade, you had to have a group of ladies in purple wearing the red hats, and each group had to elect a leader, The Queen. Gill's quip, "at least I won't be the only queen on the street that day, Hunh-HAAAA!".

During dinner, something on the table made a mess and my mother cautioned to watch out for it when picking it up, the bottom might be sticky. Gills quip, "Oh, I've had a sticky bottom many times. Hunh-HAAAA!".

After dinner, my mother put some candles in a cake and we sang Happy Birthday to Bobby. As soon as the singing was over, while the candles were still lit, Gill says, "Okay, Bobby, now do what we do best! Hunh-HAAAA!".

I love this guy.