Astonished to find this board (via IMDB) . . . and delighted that this community has formed . . .
I'm a single GWM in Wisconsin. In 1966, I had an Ennis. We had a relationship in university, in a foreign country. We were 19 when it started. He was from Texas. After the second year, he went home for summer, met a girl and got her pregnant. He got married and I got a Dear John letter. I never saw him again.
"I'm not like you. I can't make it..." I fell apart. Had what used to be called a nervous breakdown. I was a big, strong 6'4" 190 lb guy. I dropped to 155 lbs, couldn't eat, only wanted to die. I didn't think I would survive it. I didn't want to. Now, when I watch that last "Jack I can't stand this no more scene", it's like getting hit with a sense-memory tsunami. Been there, big time.
After years of therapy I finally came out in my late 20s. Over the years I had a couple of long-term relationships with wonderful guys, but it was never the same. Not by a mile.
My Ennis was very handsome, beautiful, even. He had worked as a model a couple times. Women would always comment on his extraordinarily long eyelashes. He was a man's man kind of guy, a powerful 6' or so former Golden Gloves boxer. He was studying philosophy. ("Ennis, girls don't fall in love with fun.")
Being from Texas, he spoke slowly, with a drawl. He was quiet and thoughtful, taciturn, like Ennis. No getting around it, I was more like Jake, but only temperment-wise (I was a cocky suburban midwesterner). Our relationship was stormy, and, like Jack and Ennis, the fights were sometimes real fights.
Forty years later, I still wonder "what if?" I've trawled the BBM boards half hoping I'd find a post that I could identify as his. And, just in case he's looking too, I'm here posting our story.
Love to you all, especially to my own Ennis, if you're reading this. --N