I was surprised to learn on Sunday morning that I do not exist.

This will come as sad news to my children, to whom I’ve been a mother for over 20 years now.

It will come as a shock to my wife, too, to whom I’ve been married for 30 years.

It would have been a disappointment for my mother, as well — the conservative, evangelical Christian Republican, who, when she learned I was transgender, two decades ago, said, “I would never turn my back on my child,” and then quoted First Corinthians: “These three remain: faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love.”

It has been a hard life for me, these last 60 years, but on the whole I have felt grateful for the many blessings that have come my way, and being trans not least.

It is so disappointing, then, and more than a little embarrassing, to learn I’m imaginary — a creature no more real than the cyclops, or a hippogriff.