The worst thing I ever did

Well OK, who am I kidding, it's not the worst, but it's up there.

You guys remember my friend, Tucker McGrath? Well Tucker has never been what you would call "strong-willed". In fact, you could practically get him to do anything. "Anything" included convincing him it would be really funny if he came out of the closet to his family, even though he's not gay.

I got a couple of other people to play along and convince him that this would be a really hilarious prank. Especially if he kept it up for a few years. And he did. Three years, in fact.

Basically, it tore his whole family apart. His dad did the whole "I have no son" thing when he broke the news, but good 'ol Tucker kept his cool and didn't confess. Even when his mom would secretly call him, crying and begging him to get help at one of those gay deprogramming places, he kept up the joke.

I'll be honest, when his grandmother found out and died of a heart attack, I felt like things may have gone a little too far. I even felt a little bit responsible for a little while. I came forward and told him so, but he just wouldn't drop it. I even went to his parents and tried to tell them it was all a big goof but it wasn't any use. Whatever he did to convince them otherwise must have been pretty persuasive because they just wouldn't listen to me. I think they thought I was his boyfriend or something like that, lying to them to try and patch things up.

Anyway, his parents probably would have gone to their graves thinking he was gay except that they had a big breakthrough in therapy and decided to accept Tucker and his alternative lifestyle. Having "won" (in his mind), Tucker came clean and told them it was all just for laughs. I think they were mad at first, because he had put them through so much pain in those three years, but they eventually came to see it was a pretty awesome joke.

And that's the story of how I reunited a gay kid and his family.