I was so touched by the warmth of welcome from Dagny and Summer yesterday, thank you. I’ll try to post a bit more often.

I mainly wanted to tell you, in case it’s of interest, that GayRM and I still best friends. We connected on RfM in 2005 and met for the first time IRL on 11 December that year at an exmo meet-up he arranged. I’ll never forget the date because it was the anniversary of when I first went through the temple. I send him a Happy Anniversary to us message every year :)

He’s amazing. Steve and I had dinner with him and his fiancé when we were in London last year and it was so fun to see them.

I remember with huge fondness Scottishboy, Matt and tonnes of other amazing exmos I met in the UK, who’s RfM monikers I’ve since forgotten, we had loads of exmo meet ups back then.

And of course I ended up marrying one exmo in particular :) His sister and I were companions on our mission in England in 1985 and have remained close friends ever since. She introduced us in 2008 after we’d both been divorced and left the church. I have long suspected she was trying to tie up two loose ends.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/03/2023 02:49PM by Claire Ferguson Benson.

Thanks for the update!

I too have met some great people from RfM over the years. Some of my best and most treasured memories involve exmos.

It's shocking how the decades have flown by. It seems like only yesterday I laughed with SuzieQ in Santa Barbara, CA and got a tour in SLC from Cabbie. I was thrilled to meet Mr. Benson in person. His writings about leaving Mormonism were important to me.

I feel like I know several people from RfM although I've never met them in person. A lot of people here have the same perspective I do with the same Mormon influence I had. It's hard to find kindred souls in real life sometimes. It's always nice when they check in to update us on their journeys.

I've only been to Europe once in my life. RfM has made me feel closer to people all over the world, long before we had social media all over the place.

Thanks for starting another thread on this, Claire!

I love your update, Claire! I see that you used the British spelling for "tonnes." I can see how the British exmos adopted you as one of their own. :)

The Briar Rose in Birmingham! Such a wonderful meeting between friends!

I figure we all must be (possibly) friends, eternally.

We're not stuck being Mormon and have liberty to BE!

That's uniting-

Friends are always welcome to send letters, and numbers... and great friends can call anytime! Best friends can visit.

Thoughtful CFB and many others here and afar~