Julianne Larsen: I'm Julianne Larsen. I'm 46 years old.
Mar Fenix Nauta: My name is Mar Fenix Nauta. I'm 52 years old.
Julianne Larsen: We thought we'd talk about how we met.
Mar Fenix Nauta: We met at Transitions Group, which is a group for severely mentally ill people who are high functioning. I'm sitting there in group and this amazingly beautiful woman walks in, and the most awesome boobies in the world. And I'm just intrigued right away.
Julianne Larsen: I think I saw you first. I noticed how you carry yourself your beautiful, gorgeous eyes, your wisdom -- because it was a group that shared a lot of advice. And I just really wanted you to be my friend.
Mar Fenix Nauta: We were friends for a couple of years.
Julianne Larsen: Yeah.
Mar Fenix Nauta: And then you wrote me that letter.
Julianne Larsen: What did you think of the letter?
Mar Fenix Nauta: Oh my gosh, we were such good friends. And I was trying so hard to be a good Mormon girl, to please my grandmother. And I was doing pretty good at it. And here I get this letter from you, indicating you want to romance not just a friendship. I was worried that if I said no, it would end our friendship.
Julianne Larsen: Oh, yeah. But you told me no at first, when did you change your mind?
Mar Fenix Nauta: Well, when I stopped trying to be a good Mormon girl. I think I was probably about a year later. We were talking and you were talking about needing to renew your prescription for birth control pills.
Julianne Larsen: So I made you kinda jealous.
Mar Fenix Nauta: You made me a little bit jealous. Yeah.
Julianne Larsen: Wow. Okay.
Mar Fenix Nauta: And then there was that kiss...
Julianne Larsen: The first kiss?
Mar Fenix Nauta: The first kiss.
Julianne Larsen: And did I ask you or did you ask me?
Mar Fenix Nauta: I don't remember anything except just completely melting into you.
Julianne Larsen: Just complete bliss.
Mar Fenix Nauta: I was a goner.
Julianne Larsen: Do you remember trips to San Francisco and Albuquerque? What stood out to you on those?
Mar Fenix Nauta: The BioPark.
Julianne Larsen: The bio Park in Albuquerque? Yeah.
Mar Fenix Nauta: So they have botanical gardens...
Julianne Larsen: That were so beautiful.
Mar Fenix Nauta: We saw that, were like "If we ever were able to get married, we would do it there."
Julianne Larsen: Yeah, I think we still should if we ever can.
Mar Fenix Nauta: You know, I wanted to briefly cover why we don't get married. Because I think people don't understand that.
Julianne Larsen: That's a good idea.
Mar Fenix Nauta: Because it's legal for us to be married. But we're both disabled. And disabled people take a hit financially, when they get married. They lose their benefits. And we need our medical care to live. It's a really harsh reality. So we live together without the benefit of marriage. But we didn't live together at first,
Julianne Larsen: Right.
Mar Fenix Nauta: We finally were like, Why are we trying to keep up two households? It's so much work. So we moved into your place. And it has been a lot easier, just keeping up one household.
Julianne Larsen: This is our 13th year.
Mar Fenix Nauta: In July we'll have been together for 13 years. And we were friends for a couple years before that. So we'll have known each other for like 15 years.
Julianne Larsen: We've had so many good things. I don't even know where to begin -- all our Christmases together... Actually back in 2019 You got this idea to adopt a rescue kitty.
Mar Fenix Nauta: And you very graciously said "okay". So we each separately went on the Humane Society's website and we both picked the same kitty. Then we went there and she snuggled up to me right away.
Julianne Larsen: I know!
Mar Fenix Nauta: She's been a real addition to the family.
