AWESOME story! Mine is very very similar.
Good to hear that someone out there knows what it’s like. Nobody in my little world seems to understand.
We had gone to the same church for 18 years and were heavily involved. That ended when I showed up with my new wife. We had to change churches.
But interestingly, years later I’d meet old friends from that church and they would apologize for believing all the nonsense they heard about me. Time made it clear to them what was going on. She was doing what liberals do: She was projecting. And I do believe this event outed her as a liberal.