Part one: Fairy gifts and curses. Two excursions -- Once upon a dream -- Life with father -- Bewitched -- I'm so glad we had this time together -- Our daily bread -- Christian deformed -- Virginia is for lovers -- God's temples ; Part two: the spindle's prick. Thistletown -- Teenage wildlife -- Paul Baker: an introduction -- Breaking away -- Stroke -- Flowers of romance -- Guy trouble ; Part three: the sleep. Disney's Beauty -- Tooty fruity -- Date -- Vissi d'Arte -- Party time -- Success! -- Island retreat -- Oklahoma! -- Down there -- Stendhal syndrome ; Part four: wake up! Theodora goes wild -- Happy birthday to me! -- Deep magic -- Maggie -- Messing around -- Dad -- Bruce -- Paul -- Mum -- Deeper magic -- Epilogue -- Coda -- Acknowledgments

"Meet little Maurice Vellekoop, the youngest of five children raised by Dutch immigrants in the 1970s in a middle class suburb of Toronto. He loves watching Cher and Carol Burnett on TV, making clothes for his best friend's Barbie dolls, and helping his mum with her hair salon which she runs out of the basement of the house. In short: he is really, really gay. Which is a huge problem, because his family is part of the Christian Reformed Church, a strict Calvinist sect, which is not accepting of homosexuality to say the least. We see him participating in weekly church services, catechism classes, going to Christian schools, his stint as a member of the Calvinist Cadet Corps. Vellekoop struggles through all of this, until he finally graduates high school and gets accepted into the Ontario College of Art and Design in 1982. It is there that his life truly changes, thanks in no small part to his taking a class called "Plays In Performance" taught by the wildly flamboyant and brilliant Paul Baker. Baker is the first "out" gay man Maurice has ever met, and the two soon become close friends. It is through witnessing Baker's functional relationship with his long-time partner Martin that Maurice finally starts to reconcile with himself and begin to accept who he actually is. But it's going to be a long, messy, difficult, and occasionally hilarious process. I'm So Glad We Had This Time Together is an enthralling portrait of what it means to be true to yourself, to learn to forgive, and to be an artist."--