Laura & Mary

We met one night as I was hopping around on crutches and Mers was marvelling at the amount of gays in the one place.... It was USI Pink Training, November 2009 in Galway, Mary's first, my second, so I knew the story!

We chatted and finally kissed after a lot of prodding from a certain friend the first night. We spent the next day flirting around each other, and a glorious Sunday holding hands. But I was in UCD, she was in IT Tralee, we were doomed to failure!

We said our sad goodbyes after posing for pictures in front of a sign for Dyke Road, she saw me stride away, crutches slung over my shoulder, I walked on and tried not to think of what I was leaving behind.

Bebo was the big thing back then, we bravely added each other and started chatting on it. Seeing the little '1' for a message used to light up my face and my heart. We were very tentative, not really knowing where we stood with each other, were we flirting, or were we just friends?

Just after Christmas a very brave Mary announced that she was going to come up and visit me in Dublin, I was only delighted! I got shy when I saw her in Eason's in Heuston Station - browsing through a copy of New Scientist, quelle surprise! We had an awkward hug (both wanting to kiss but being too shy) we walked down the quays, and it was at the lights on Parliament Street before I got up the courage to give her a kiss on the cheek. I'd actually packed us a picnic in my bag, and was planning on whisking her out to Howth, but she'd brought a big bag so I left her unawares of my plan of attempted romance!

The rest is history I guess, we've been chasing each other all over the world since really, she came up to Dublin to me for those first few months, we both moved to Cork for a summer, I did Erasmus in France and a lot of Ryanair flights were taken, last year we did a J1 in San Francisco together, we're living in Tralee together right now, and back to Dublin for my last year in college next year is the plan right now! Doesn't really matter where we are, she's my home.

I've been turned to Marriage Equality thanks to Mary, when we met I always thought that the EU would force Ireland to legislate for same sex marriage, but she's taught me the need to fight. We don't want any special treatment, just to have our relationships the same in the eyes of the law as any other couples'. I hope that one day I'll be able to call her my wife.

 

Laura and Mary ran the Limerick Marathon together for Marriage Equality in May 2011 - click here to read about it!