It's been two years since our 41-year-old, married son called to tell us that he had decided the cause of the mental distress he had been experiencing is that he is in the wrong body. He informed us that, to remedy this, he had already started hormone therapy. He told me he had not seen a psychiatrist. He self-diagnosed and his primary care doctor went along with it.

I have worked in the mental health area for more than two decades. I have been trying to persuade him to visit a respected, well-known brain and neurological clinic near him, but he had refused. At that point, he cut me off but continued to talk or text with his father until last September when he cut him off as well.

Since then, our son has had two surgeries and is attempting to present as a woman. He is no longer Daddy to our granddaughter. Now she has two mommies. We have sent cards, gifts, and letters trying to let him know we will accept and love him but both he and his wife are non-responsive.

I know my son is struggling with a mood disorder and possibly schizophrenia but, in the present culture, there is no real help for him and others like him. While he was raised without any risk factors in our home, genetically we have some mental illness on each side of the family.

It is not the same as being able to bury and mourn a child. In that case, there is a cemetery plot to visit and community support. No, this is just M.I.A. We have sent our son into a hostile world and now he is missing!