11:05 a.m. - Sunday, Dec. 22, 2002
Flowers
On my first visit to the clinic in Thailand, Dr. Suporn�s wife, Aoi, gave me a flower garland. I�ve never seen anything like it. Here�s a picture of one just like the one I received:

In Thailand, pretty girls (such as myself!) carry these on their arms or wrists. They�re made entirely of flowers or flower parts. This was the first time in my life I was ever given flowers. The first time, that is, if you don�t count the boutonniere I wore in the lapel of my suit at a couple of weddngs. In what has become a Ms Leslie tradition, I got all teary-eyed when I was handed the garland.

But, there�s more!

When I awake from surgery, I was too sick and miserable to appreciate much of anything, but I did happen to see when one of the nurses brought in this little vase of flowers for me from� you guessed it�. Dr. Suporn.

These are the first flowers I received as a congruent woman. I�m not sure I can find the words to describe how I felt about these flowers. That I was given them is somehow just as important as the fact that I had survived the surgery. Maybe the best I can do is to say that after the flowers died, I asked my hotel maids to keep the vase full of fresh flowers for me, and then when I returned to the U.S., I brought my vase and filed it with dried flowers. It�s one of the few things I enjoy looking at, even today.

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