Love wins through
Rikki, Julie and baby Timothy.
Love, life and disability
From first crushes to enduring marriages, relationships are important to everyone. Connect spoke to people with a disability for their views on what makes the world go 'round.'
Being in love often goes hand in hand with thoughts of marriage and a future together.
For Rikki and Julie, being young, in love and both blind was a combination that almost shattered a promising relationship.
"We split up for two months," said Rikki.
"We were concerned about how people would react to us as a blind couple and were told by those around us that we should seek a sighted partner."
He said when he was growing up integration was taken to an extreme.
"We had always been told by people, even family, that blind people should not have relationships with each other. Any feelings for someone who was blind was in direct contrast to what society considered to be acceptable," Rikki said.
"We felt that we had to end our relationship, despite what we felt for each other, but our feelings drove us to find any excuse to get together.
"We had to make some hard decisions. Could we have a fulfilling relationship even if it meant we had to plan things that other couples could do spontaneously?"
Julie said she and Rikki decided their relationship was strong enough to withstand the challenges they would face, and that their relationship had many attributes that many others lacked.
As it turned out they were right. Twelve years later the young couple, who met at a youth camp, are still enjoying their lives together.
"We are lucky. We both have jobs as counsellors and now we have Timothy, our fourteen-week-old baby son. We have been pleasantly surprised by the support we get from the many people we interact with on a daily basis," Julie said.
"Getting together has taught us how many wonderful people there are in the world. If there is something we could say to people forming relationships, it would be to make sure that you learn how to communicate well and to work out what's important for you as a couple and as individuals.
"If you can do that, your relationship will survive just about anything."Last updated November 2007