Merry Christmas to you, dear lady, and hopes for you that this coming year provides you a new discovered family.

In my time in the US Navy in the 1980s, lesbians in the Navy referred to other military lesbians as family. As in, "Have you met Ensign Smith? I'm pretty sure she's family." But also implying a level of sisterhood unrelated by blood.

I hope you find your own family in the LGBTQ+ community near you. It won't be the same as your blood relatives, of course, but in some ways — maybe many? — it will be better.