The following is a work of fiction based on recent events and experiences in Ireland.
Dear Erica,
Today’s the day! Votes have been counted and the results are in on our abortion referendum! Yesterday during our lunch break Sarah, Pat and I went to the primary school in the village to cast our votes. I felt powerful getting to finally vote on this, having wanted change for so long. It’s all we talked about all day, and after work we went to a pub so we could watch the news even though we knew that there wouldn’t be any results in yet. The first thing I did in the morning was turn the radio on to the news station to here updates on the vote. Since it was five in the morning there was not much of an update other than that the votes were being counted and it was too soon to tell.
I hurriedly went about my morning routine and went to pick up Sarah and Pat, of course once again putting the radio to the news to see if there were any updates. To my surprise they were talking about the weather not the vote. Pat and Sarah informed me that the radio hosts said that there looked to be a major turnout of voters and that the coverage of the vote would be back at half seven when the weather and other news is done, but that they weren’t expecting results until 10 pm. We were sad to have to go out to harvest mussels when we got to the farm because we had no way of hearing about the voting. We harvested and cleaned the mussels out on the boat as fast as we could and headed in.
Sarah and Pat invited me to get dinner later at a local pub with them and Sarah’s sister who flew back from London to vote. Our co-worker Thomas said he wouldn’t make plans before the results came in because he was afraid to jinx the vote. We turned on the radio in the workroom while we cleaned the rest of the mussels and half listened while working, only paying attention when we heard something about the vote. Sarah kept complaining that she wished she could go into the city when the results were announced. That would be too much for me, I feel just as empowered learning about this monumental change in my own community surrounded by those I’m closest with. We finally heard the results while on our lunch break at a cafe in the village.
The cafe had turned a radio on at someone’s request and it was such an amazing and relieving feeling to hear that something I have personally wanted for so long finally happened with such a large majority. I was overcome with emotions and couldn’t stop smiling. Sarah, Pat, Thomas and I finished our work for the rest of the day happily discussing the positive impact this will have and the future legislation, Thomas finally agreeing to come out with us to dinner to celebrate.
Can’t wait to visit soon!
Rico