Chapter 12

New Adventures

Mum was enjoying staying in Portugal, particularly in the winter, and rarely came back to Cornwall, so twice a year the whole family, Megan and I, Kit and Kirsty, Gina and Bob, and their two girls Emma and Jane, flew over to Porto where we were met by Jack for the trip out to Castelo de Paiva. With the minor changes that Linda had suggested, the pousada was much improved, and with the area becoming a more popular destination, it was becoming a very successful addition to the business.

On our next visit after my adventures in Wales, away from the others, I told Mum about me impersonating her at the Conwy Valley women’s club and how successful it had been. The only problem was that a couple of the women had suggested making a booking for a holiday at ‘O Pousada Senhorial’, and that obviously they would know that the Mrs Jean Morgagni they had met was not the same as the one at the Pousada.

The thought of me standing up in front of the women’s club talking about how to be a successful businesswoman really amused her, and it took her a while for her to reply. “That’s no problem, other than the general manager, who I can trust to be discreet, all the staff only know me as Senhora Morgagni, a relative of the owners, and do not know my christian name, so if I do have any visitors from Wales i will just introduce myself as your Auntie Joan. By the way, have you any photos of your talk at the club, i would like to see what Gina and you think I should look like.”

It was not long before our next university re-union, which was now only every two years, rather than annually, but still gave us all a chance to catch up on changes. After our meal when we were leaving, Emma took me to one side and asked to meet me the next day for lunch, away from the others, but Megan could come too, as she wanted to discuss something with me. Intrigued, the three of us met up at a local restaurant and found a private corner table, but as we were going home immediately afterwards I was there as Gino, not Maria.

“Come on Emma, you are looking very unsure, you obviously have something to ask us, just spit it out, we aren’t going to bite you.”

“This is hard for me to ask but I would like a big favour from you. My brother is a bit like you Gino, only he is now living full-time as a woman and is considering a full transition. I don’t really understand but I am sure that you do even if you only dress occasionally. He is now living near Barnstaple and has been going to a local support group for TGs. They normally meet in each others houses, but are now thinking that instead of hiding away they would like to go out and meet in a more social atmosphere at a pub or hotel. There are lots of hotels in Barnstaple but they feel that it would be more discreet and less chance of any of them being recognised if they were a little bit out of the area. Do you think any of your places might be able to fit them in?”

“I would love to help, but we don’t have any of the local hotels up the West Coast anymore except for The Piran and other than the main function room which will probably be far too large, we do not have any private rooms for hire there, and, besides, it is almost a 2hour drive from Barnstaple, let me check with some other hotels. As you know, I am fairly well known around here and am therefore very discreet with my dressing. Except on special occasions, I prefer to keep my dressing behind closed doors or away from the local area, so I am not familiar with what goes on with the support groups. Leave it with me and I will let you know.”

I actually knew that our hotel, The Lundy, just outside Ilfracombe, would probably be suitable, but I wanted to check with Charles, the General Manager there, that there would not be a problem with him or his staff dealing with the TG group. It turned out that the hotel already had an occasional booking from a TG group in Bristol who had weekend breaks there, and that his staff did not seem to mind, in fact he thought that a few of the male staff were gay themselves anyway and couldn’t really object. The Lundy had a private function room with its own bar and direct access from the car park and was only about 20 minutes away from Barnstaple.

I went back to Emma and gave her the details, but asked that I would prefer it if they discussed it directly with the hotel rather than through me, as I didn’t want to be seen by the staff as doing them any special favours. This worked out well and apparently they had an excellent night out, meal and drinks, and were well received without any embarrassment at the Lundy and made a regular monthly booking, for which the hotel manager was very grateful. Gina went up to their meetings a couple of times to give demonstrations on make-up and hair styles which were more appropriate to their special needs, particularly for those who did not dress full-time, drawing on her experiences and experiments with me over the years. These became a regular feature of their meetings, with local beauticians and hairdressers taking over Gina’s duties.

I made a point of visiting The Lundy on one of their meeting nights and looked in over the CCTV to see that they were all enjoying themselves. It appeared to be a mixture of genuine women, probably wives of some of the group or girls who had transitioned, some fairly passable crossdressers, and some who still had a long way to go, who made me grateful that I was not particularly tall or musclebound and that when I became Maria I was totally convincing as female. Chatting with Charles afterwards I asked about the weekend breaks of the Bristol TG group and how they worked that around the other hotel guests, and was surprised that the numbers were enough to block book the hotel and the function room, leaving just the bar and public restaurant in the other wing for use by others.

I thought this might work at Y Faenor Gwyn, and later I suggested this to Ifor , told him that it was totally up to him whether to follow up on it and whether he felt it appropriate for the area. the hotel was in its own private grounds with quite extensive gardens, and so a weekend break there would offer more social options than mostly being confined in one wing at the Lundy. After talking to the staff he thought it might be a useful addition to the other self-contained theme breaks that he already catered for, but wasn’t sure about how to advertise this or make contact with TG groups. Together we came up with the idea of a trial run by offering the group using The Lundy a heavily discounted weekend break there with some pre-arranged activities and visits, on the condition that if it all worked out for them and the hotel that they would make contact with other similar groups to suggest more visits.

I went up with Gina who was going to give them more in-depth demonstrations and tips on hair and make-up techniques, and Elinor had arranged that one of the boutiques in Conwy would provide some sample outfits for a fashion show, to give all the ‘girls’ a full female weekend experience. I kept away from the sessions, but with Ifor kept a general eye on it all to ensure that it was going smoothly. It was amazing how Gina’s demonstration and make-overs greatly improved the appearance of many of the ‘girls’ and at their final night dinner dance many of them looked quite passable, with new make-up, hairstyles and outfits, and went back home with a lot more confidence . This led to a lot more makeover weekends with groups coming from Chester, Manchester and Liverpool, and even further afield. Elinor had found an excellent local beautician and hairdresser to carry on from what Gina had started and the boutique were delighted to have a new sales market which was usually quite profitable for them.

Life was settling into a routine, the twins were now off doing their own things at university, the business was ticking over nicely and we were living a quite comfortable life. Kit was not intending to follow me and my Mum into the hotel business, he was more interested in making a career in property development, but Kirsty was shaping up nicely at university, and when working in the Piran, developing to become the future third generation head of The Piran Group. Following on from her demonstration sessions at the TG groups meetings, Gina was building up a quite big sideline to her business with discreet internet sales and on-line videos for the TG community. My family was definitely living proof that with the right attitude there was no reason why women could not make a success in business.

Kirsty fitted into the business very smoothly and I gradually drifted into Mum’s role as the wise old head of the business and Kirsty took my earlier role looking after things on a day-to-day basis, This allowed Megan and I to have more time for our visits to Snowdonia to Elinor and Ifor, and Maria was becoming a regular part of my life again.
The following years were mixture of delight and sadness. Kit married his long-term girlfriend Jenny and carried on the family tradition of twins, Ronnie and Rosie, and a second set, Tricia and Tina. Kirsty was in a steady relationship but did not seem to be in a hurry to settle down with a family, and spent most of her time running the family firm. Unhappily Mum contracted cancer and, after a short illness, passed away, and was brought home to lie next to her husband Luigi in the graveyard of the local church in Perranporth.

Maria and I decided to follow Mum’s example and retire to ‘O Pousada Senhorial’. After long discussions we decided that as I now had no major business responsibilities, that I would live full-time as Maria, but neither Megan nor I wanted me to go the whole way down the path of transition as we both enjoyed our intimate moments together as husband and wife.

We continued like this for a few years before deciding that it was too inconvenient to have to change back and to between Maria and Gino for our frequent travel back to the UK and the problems with my Gino passport. I started on a course of female hormones to enable me to get a gender recognition certificate and a new passport, and officially became Maria. The doctors arranged the hormone level sufficient to help me develop breasts, a narrower waist and a more fleshy bottom and hips and generally soften my features, but still allow me to function as Gino in the bedroom. Otherwise I was living completely as Maria, with Megan and I having adjacent suites at the pousada.

We often sit on our balcony with a bottle of local Douro red wine or vino verde or, the speciality of the region, vintage port, overlooking the beautiful Douro Valley remembering all the special times with the girls at school and university, our visits up to Snowdonia, and all the good times with wonderful family and friends. All my life I had flitted in and out of femininity, but was now content just living naturally and officially as Maria. Over the years I had been a lot luckier than most in having family and friends who were tolerant and understanding of my crossdressing, many suffered rejection by those close to them.

We constantly had visits from Gina, Bob and their children and grandchildren, from Kirsty and her long-term partner Jack, and from Kit, Jenny and their children, and from friends who had helped ease the way along my life’s path.

We were always delighted when the grandchildren visited and so pleased that Ronnie got on so well and played happily with his three sisters, including joining in with their playing-house and dressing-up games.

Could history be repeating itself and starting this story all over again?

The End