The first time MaryLou Piland laid eyes on Anthony… that was it. She knew she was going to be with him forever. Their first encounter was like something out of a romance novel, or at least that’s the way she describes it.
“A gust of wind hit back of my legs,” she explains. “I turned around and my eyes locked on the most gorgeous boy I had ever seen.”
She was so smitten by this boy that she told her teacher, “I am going to marry Anthony someday.”
She convinced her teacher to let her have a non-existent filing job in the office and just happened to find Anthony’s file. Basically, from this point on she was stalking him.
She found ways to see him throughout the school day and tried to make conversation here and there. She had begun to plot out her entire future with Anthony when her sister dropped a bomb on her explaining that her father would kill her if she brought Anthony home.
All because he was black.
But she didn’t care because she loved him. They had been friends for more than six years and decided to start dating when Anthony returned from the Air Force.
They snuck around at first but then Anthony insisted on meeting her strict and racist off-the-boat Italian family. He said, “this is the 90s, people aren’t like that anymore.
But MaryLou’s family was. Her family basically disowned her and refused to talk to her. She ended up having to move out.
Worst of all her uncle threatened her with a gun.
“If you bring shame to me or my family I will shoot you and I will shoot Anthony,” he told her pointing to the gun in his waistband.
Only her grandmother told her to follow her heart, so MaryLou did. They are now married and have three children in college. Eventually, her family came around and they have spent more than 20 Thanksgivings at the table of her uncle who threatened her life.
She shared her beautiful story of how her family was able to overcome racism with The Moth. You can listen to MaryLou tell her powerful story in the video below.
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