I met Marie through Josephine Flaherty who is both her friend and support worker. Marie wanted to tell her life story, but she wanted Josephine to be there as she told it. We met three times over 12 months. The first time we met in a hotel in Galway and talked about doing a life story and Marie talked a little about her life as it was then. The second time we met at my home in Dublin. The third time was again in Galway at Marie's apartment. There was a lot of talk between Marie and Josephine as we went along but this is Marie's story and so I have not included Josephine’s contributions directly. Over the 12 months, Marie's life changed a great deal. I have sometimes changed the tense of the verbs so that the story makes sense to the reader. One of the things that was very important to Marie was her concern with justice for people with disabilities and the importance in her life of being an advocate. So in some parts of the story I have included her comments on what a particular1 part of her life has meant in terms of other people.

“I like it when I don't have people telling me what to do kind of. My own life. When I am my own boss. That's how I like it. Just having my own space like you know. Sometimes it can get a bit annoying if you don't have enough to do kind of.

“I would like to keep doing the work I am doing and keep doing what I am doing. As long as I can. And as long as I am helping somebody I am happy. As long as somebody gets something out of it I am happy you know.”

“My dream is to keep going and help people as much as I can, that's all I want to do, and keep being here in my flat, that's my dream.