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Kim Mason is a Transgender Woman who plays saxophone in a popular band Randle and the Late Night Scandals based out of Buffalo NY. Kim moved to Buffalo in the year 2001 to start her transition from male to female.
In the year 2007 Kim's daughter contacted her after finding out that Kim was her biological father.
"My Daughter was born in 1992. I was 25 years old, a young Chef, aspiring to be a professional musician. At that time, everyone involved felt it was in the best interest of the child that it would be assumed I was not the biological father."
"I watched her grow up from afar while still living in my hometown of Roseburg Oregon. It was, at times, painful for me. Even more adding to my regret was that the kid was in the same school, same class as my partner's son."
When you transition you must be prepared to lose your friends, employment and sadly also you lose a lot of your family. So now Kim had her daughter back. But she was not ready to lose her after losing so much already. So she kept this a secret from her daughter.
"Selfish of me I now realize. When I would travel home to visit I would do this in what I refer to as Butch Mode."
Their father daughter relationship grew over the next three years. Then in October of 2010 Kim's grandson was born. And Kim's daughter honored her by naming him after Kim's birth name, Timothy. And then later in August 2012 another angel was born, Kim's granddaughter Aly. Now she had a family again.
The year 2012 was a crazy year for Kim. June 2012, the company she worked for sold to another mortgage company. She later found out this new company did not have any transgender accommodation policy and later in November of 2012 her employment was terminated.
"But I must say 2012 also had a lot of positive changes in my life style. The band got a lot of positive press and we were moving up the charts in the local music scene.
The news of Kim's success broke into the social media scene of her home town Roseburg Oregon. My band was winning many awards and started opening up for national acts that visited the region. Roseburg is pretty small so word got out to Kim's daughter.
"It was Christmas Eve when my daughter called me and being the straight shooter she is point blank asked me.
"Dad. This Kalifornia Kim thing. Is this a gimmick or is it really you?"
I answered, "Kim is who I am."
"OK. Not the way I wanted to come out to my daughter but I was not surprised that she was so accepting of me. I remember her words exactly. "Dad I loved you then and I love you now. Hell, I named my son after you." So Now I am known as Tran Daddy Kim. I love it."
"Except for the occasional heart attack, I never felt better."
On February 11th 2014 while returning home from a band practice Kim was walking up the 20 stairs to my loft apartment in Buffalo NY when I collapsed. Falling down I broke 4 ribs and a contusion to her heart. She woke up in ICU. Later she found out after tests that she had 4 heart attacks since October 2013. She was rushed into open heart surgery and had a quad by pass. Due to other complications that caused the fall and an autoimmune disease she is currently on temporary assistance and waiting her Social Security Disability Insurance.
"Later I was told by the attending physicians if they had not found these clogged arteries, I would not have lived to my next birthday. Having a close call with death put things in perspective and really made me reevaluate life."
Kim started a crowd funding campaign on Fund My Travel.
"I want to visit my family and meet and hold my grandchildren. And meet my daughter as Kim. I have set an ambitious goal of $2500 to accommodate this journey."
You can view the campaign at https://www.fundmytravel.com/campaign/YqB9l3grzB
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