Thao Nguyen, Director of Outreach

by Thao Nguyen, Outreach Manger, 
National Women's Law Center 

Yesterday I had one of those weird phone calls. The kind where, as soon as you get off the phone, you immediately go through your contact list looking for someone you can tell about it. The kind that makes you stop that downstairs neighbor you haven’t spoken to in three years and recount the story to her. The kind that inspires you to drop everything and write a post for your organization’s blog. On a Sunday night.
 
The call was from my friend, Lucy.* She was calling to tell me that she and her boyfriend of 10 years recently got married.

Okay, I suppose since you don’t know them this might not be mind-blowing to you. But Lucy and her beau, Dan,* had one of those painful relationships where the woman was hinting, making banners, and going just short of taking a full-page out in The New York Times to beg her boyfriend to propose to her — and he just couldn’t seem to get around to it. But Lucy, who works with bankers and lawyers for a living, has the patience of a saint.

And so 10 years have come and gone. Which makes today, for all the friends who have been rooting for her (and who may or may not have been condemning her boyfriend for his lack of action), a momentous time that rivals the recent replacing of judges. (Yeah – I was shocked by the Ellen announcement too.) 
 
So when I heard that the wedding, this miracle of all miracles, had actually taken place, I made some popcorn, got a glass of wine, and snuggled up on the sofa, expecting a long story about how Dan finally came to his senses. Only to have Lucy matter-of-factly tell me, “I don’t have a job anymore and the COBRA was too expensive. No health insurance, so marriage.”

by Thao Nguyen, Outreach Manager, 
National Women's Law Center