Let me introduce myself. My name is Tina Cosgrove and I'm 57 years old and an only child. I'm single and I currently work from home as a book accountant for a couple of local companies and a charity. I have spent all of my adult life living in my family home. My father died when I was a child and I was a carer for my mother from the age of 19 until about six months ago. She had suffered from a degenerative neurological disorder for nearly 40 years up until her death.
I was brought up a Catholic and was taught to despise my body, my sexuality and my feelings. I was taught to believe in "no sex before marriage" and have only ever had three boyfriends in my lifetime and none since I was in my mid 40's. I had found it impossible to mix my mother's care needs with anything like a personal relationship. I've never had sex and have never seen a man naked in real life.
Physically I've got short grey hair, a plain homely face with a slightly bulbous nose and flay cheeks. I'm quite short and plump, a typical pear shape and quite overweight. I got large fat hips, fat legs and thighs patterned with cellulite. I've a belly which sits like a spare tire around my waist and hangs over my hips and groin area. My breasts are non-existent, barely a-cup, with large red crinkly areola and as I've gotten older they have flopped down and just hang from my chest like a couple of shrivelled fried eggs. Between my legs there is a large thatch of unkempt curly grey public hair.
I don't consider myself to be attractive or desirable in any way, an opinion confirmed every time I look in the mirror. I tend to wear shapeless clothes that hide my figure. I seldom put myself into any position where I would have to wear tight or revealing clothes. I haven't been to a gym in years, seldom go swimming and haven't been near a beach since I was a young girl. My main form of exercise is housework and walking.
After my mother's death I had a complete crisis of faith. It led to deterioration in my faith in God, church and its teaching. I became increasingly bitter about how my life has escaped me, how I've never found love, how I've never really enjoyed my body either in appearance or in feeling. I started to drink quite a lot and eat constantly. Around the same time I discovered the Internet and it helped start teaching me how to think for myself. It also introduced me to a different way to think about myself...
I remember the time it all changed for me. I was online one evening, most of the way through a bottle of wine, reading Cosmo or sort other woman's lifestyle magazine. The article I started reading was about Cap D'Agde, the naturist/nudist town in France. I was fascinated about these people who walked around nude without a care in the world, but if I had a slim tanned beautiful body like them I probably would do the same. But I wanted to know more and typed 'Cap D'Adge nudism' in Google search and disabled the safe search option.
And that the moment my life changed. The images that I saw were of people, lots of different types of people. Thin, fat, tall, short, beautiful, ugly, saggy, tight, slim, soft, curvy... I could go on. But no matter how they looked they were naked and exposing themselves to others with no regard for decency. This affected me in two ways. My upbringing and entire life screamed at me about how wrong this was and these people were immoral and sinful. Yet I felt sexually aroused and this was something I really wasn't used to. I felt butterflies in my stomach and an ache between my legs. Closing my PC and finishing my wine I made my way to bed and I remember dreaming that night of simply walking along a beach and feeling free as a bird.