What We Will Become

A Mother, a Son, and a Journey of Transformation

Mimi Lemay

• Publisher: Mariner Books
• Year: 2019
• Topic: Social Sciences
• eBook ISBN:
  9780544965867
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies
• Index: Social Sciences

A mother’s memoir of her transgender child’s odyssey, and her journey outside the boundaries of the faith and culture that shaped her.

From the age of two-and-a-half, Jacob, born “Em,” adamantly told his family he was a boy. While his mother Mimi struggled to understand and come to terms with the fact that her child may be transgender, she experienced a sense of déjà vu—the journey to uncover the source of her child’s inner turmoil unearthed ghosts from Mimi’s past and her own struggle to live an authentic life.    
 
Mimi was raised in an ultra-Orthodox Jewish family, every aspect of her life dictated by ancient rules and her role as a woman largely preordained from cradle to grave. As a young woman, Mimi wrestled with the demands of her faith and eventually made the painful decision to leave her religious community and the strict gender roles it upheld.
 
Having risen from the ashes of her former life, Mimi was prepared to help her son forge a new one — at a time when there was little consensus on how best to help young transgender children. Dual narratives of faith and motherhood weave together to form a heartfelt portrait of an unforgettable family. Brimming with love and courage, What We Will Become is a powerful testament to how painful events from the past can be redeemed to give us hope for the future.
 

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Contents
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• Preface
• Into the Woods We Go
• The Interpreter of Dreams
• The Negotiation
• The Sabbatical
• Hello, Princess
• Down the Rabbit Hole
• Birthday Girl
• The Condiment Thief
• Honey Badger
• Devotion
• An Ordinary Life
• In the Land of Mist and Fog
• Changes
• The Circumference of Thine Feet
• The Doggy Sweater
• Thresholds
• The Talisman
• Photos
• The Other
• Boy Band
• I Am Benjamin Bonn
• Pitending
• The Kallah
• Paradise Lost
• The Firebrand
• The Theory of Status Quo
• Flip-Falls
• Dearest <Child>
• A Different Source Code
• Prince Charming
• The Redaction
• Open/Shut, Boy/Girl
• The Luckiest
• Two Roads Diverged
• A Boy Named Jacob
• On a Dark Night
• Nahapochu
• A Brave New World
• Epilogue
• A Note on “A Letter to My Son Jacob on His 5th Birthday”
• A Letter to My Son Jacob on His 5th Birthday
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• Connect with HMH