HEARTBREAK BEHIND HISTORY-MAKING DAY
A QUEENSLAND woman battling terminal cancer and her doting partner have been revealed as Australia’s first same-sex couple to officially tie the knot.
Jo Grant, 48, and Jill Kindt, 53, were legally married in the garden of their Coolum Beach home last year, making history with the help of nurses, strangers and bureaucrats.
The small December 15 ceremony came just weeks before Jo, described by the love of her life as a strong, beautiful woman, died.
“She was a force of nature,” Ms Kindt said.
The couple of eight years had stood before their loved ones and a friend acting as celebrant on March 23, 2013, exchanging vows in a ceremony described as their promise day. A curious phone call from a palliative care nurse sparked the swiftly executed marriage ceremony, including the bypassing of red tape. The 30-day waiting period was waived and their marriage certificate, the first of its kind, traded hands between strangers at a petrol station on the Bruce Hwy before being delivered to them.
Jill watched alongside Jo’s parents, Sandra and Paul, at State Parliament yesterday as Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath revealed the wedding came a day before those in Sydney and Melbourne, previously believed to have been the first.