Our story

How Io met Eva

"Io - can you show Eva how to do street outreach?"

The first day I met Eva was a Monday. I know because Youth Suitcase Clinic was on Mondays. It was September 2006 - I'd like to think it might have been September 3rd.

I had just started as clinic coordinator, a position I had stumbled into while studying at Berkeley. In a student-run free health clinic, there weren't many volunteers who were as consistent (or who would rope in their friends and parents to come too). I had no idea what I was doing; I'd like to think I did a good job faking it while I was learning.

As clinic coordinator I was responsible for orienting and helping train new volunteers, so when our new AmeriCorps partner Eva joined, we went on a long walk through Berkeley. I pointed out the places that homeless youth usually spent time, how to crouch to talk to someone sitting on the sidewalk, and what to say to encourage them to come to the clinic. It was evening; I'd like to think it was a beautiful sunset.

Eva and I became the main pillars at Suitcase Clinic, working together each Monday night. I thought Eva was great. I was interested in her (I even told my mom, which was unusual), but pursued a friendship; I didn't want to create awkwardness at Suitcase Clinic and assumed that someone who had graduated wouldn't want to date a student. It was a great year that laid the foundation for our partnership.

With the year coming to an end, we had to part ways. Eva went to Senegal. I finished school and then moved to Texas for Teach for America. Several years later, we reconnected, first as friends and then as more.

How Eva met Io

The first year that Io and I knew each other, we spent 4 hours together every Monday cooking dinner, handing out socks, providing needle exchange, doing street outreach, and directing volunteers. I had just graduated from college and part of my job with Americorps was supporting a student-run drop-in space for homeless youth in Berkeley, California. Io, still in school, coordinated the drop-in.

We worked incredibly hard, and incredibly well, together. Mondays were something to look forward to, especially the quiet hour after the drop-in closed when the team would review what had happened during the evening, and Io and I would close up the building. I had found a collaborator and friend, someone I respected and trusted. I didn't know that I would one day fall in love with Io, but ten years ago we already had the foundation of a great relationship.

Our lives diverged: I finished Americorps and spent time in West Africa. Io moved to Texas. However, we both found our way back to the San Francisco bay area, and started spending time together. Friendship came back to us easily, and developed into romance almost as effortlessly.

We continue to work hard, challenge each other, and learn together. We have wrangled a quarter acre of weeds into a thriving urban garden (with more than a little help from our friends); hiked dozens of miles in sun, rain, and snow; and been around the world. I can't wait to do even more together.

We got engaged on a June day while swimming in the Yuba River in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Countless young men risked it all for a chance to strike it rich in those hills during California's gold rush 160 years ago. Most of them went home empty handed. We came out with each other, forever.